Game logs for 12/3 and 12/31: Oooh, that smell

Dramatis personae

Kim, thief (John)
Ash, squire (John)
Xóran, fox-man scout (Roman)
Grymálkus, war cleric (Roman, 12/31 only)
Caleb, wizard (Roman)
Mayhem, barbarian (12/3 NPC, 12/31 Steph)
Áttikos, holy warrior (Joe)
Kôštē, cleric (NPC)
Villûdē, guide (NPC, 12/3 only)

Quid occurrit

The next day, they set forth. In the morning, they saw the black cloud of the evil turkeys far in the sky, but nothing bothered their trek. They set up camp for the night, and the night was quiet. Some of them munched on snake meat as the moon came into the clear sky.

The next morning? Not so quiet or clear.

The killer turkeys showed up not long after the gang set forth. They kept to the air, and swooped in and out. In spite of the hurt the turkeys did, they didn’t have too much trouble with them, mostly from Caleb cooking them in midair.

That night, they stayed in the village of Pranrés, in the home of Gummátōr, the daughter of the chief of the Dragon Claw Clan. Xóran looked for a jeweler, but found none. The morning after telling their tales of blondes and turkeys, found the ground under where their horses were sleeping had dropped, and their horses were in a hole. Caleb Levitated them out in about a half-hour, and they set forth for town, as they understood that they could reach Mīstássun by dusk if they didn’t stop. The only choice was which bridge they took—north or south.

They took the north. Near the north bridge, Xóran’s nose smelled something bad. Everyone took a guess as to what he smelled.

Xóran thought, with some buffs, he could take a troll. So he told Caleb to cast Flaming Weapon on his swords and on Mayhem’s greataxe. And so, he went up to the bridge.

And, after a second, Mayhem and Ash pulled his unconscious body away so they could bolt for the south bridge with Xóran on a horse.

They made it back to town, healed up Xóran, and tallied up their riches. They hung around for a week, drinking at the Pantry and other taverns, staying out of the rain. Kim heard tales about riches in the Battlefield of Ālkólanon in the Áos Hills to the northwest, west of the Dragon Claw Clan’s wintering grounds. Ash heard tales about riches in a temple in the Eldalîvā Woods to the southeast. Mayhem heard about riches in a dwarf tomb in the Védē Hills to the southwest. Indeed, through loose chatter and that he had been in the Dumenrôn Swamp, he gathered that the tomb was a few miles to the west of the swamp, and only a few miles into the hills. Caleb checked a few old books, and found that the dwarves buried a king in that tomb with Blôtos’s Cloak, which disguised its wearer with an illusion of another fellow.

So, after seven nights, they chose to set forth the next day for the Védē Hills, without Villûdē, as they were not going into the swamp, but with Grymálkus, a drunken cleric of the war god Punšástōr, and Áttikos, a quiet holy warrior of the sun god Saundīvós. It was a slow but steady three-day trek, as it was mostly through civilized lands, though Áttikos wasn’t big enough to bear all his armor.

Mayhem had no trouble finding the opening to the dungeon, which was a worked circlet of metal that he turned to show the door. While he pushed on it, Áttikos prayed to Saundīvós, who told him to beware his neck. What that meant, he didn’t know.

Anyways, they went down the stairs, and found themselves in a big eight-sided room. There were seven hallways out, and Xóran led the gang down each one until it forked, scratched the wall to mark where they had been, then brought them back to the big room to try the next one. One led to a small room that gave Mayhem and Kim a nasty zap; Caleb undid the trap while Kôštē and Grymálkus healed them.

After checking out each hallway, they went back to that small room to which two hallways had led, and went out its third way out. After hitting a fork and taking it, they stumbled into a small room with two other ways out and 15 goblins.

Xóran stunned some goblins with a roar, and the rest took off to the south after watching Mayhem and Ash taking down one of their stunned fellows. As Xóran, Kim, Mayhem, and Ash killed the stunned goblins, Grymálkus and Áttikos heard a snort behind them. They turned and saw a big boar watching them. After a second, Grymálkus stepped towards the boar, which turned and ran.

After the short fight, the everyone talked about what had happened. Xóran, hearing the deeds of the boar, said, “Someone knows we’re here.” However, as the boar had ran too fast, he couldn’t take a shot at it.

So they started looking around again. First they went to the north and made it to a fork which they had marked earlier. Instead of taking the other hallway from the fork, they instead went back to the room where they had fought the goblins and took the hallway to the south. After a few feet that hall forked, so they went east, where they had heard the goblins scamper.

Xóran easily picked up their smell, and they followed it past a few other hallways, one of which wrankled Xóran’s fox nose. After a few minutes, they reached a room with four other ways out, besides the hallway to the west through which they had come in: two hallways to the north, one to the south, and a hole to the east that was in the top of the wall. They climbed into the hole and crawled a bit, then came to the outside. Xóran popped his head out the hole, and saw the goblins, catching their breath. He greeted them with a roar. It didn't stun any of them, but they fled.

So, where to next? Mayhem had an idea: “Let’s go see where it smells bad!” Only murderhoboes. So they went back down the hallway and took the branch to the south where Xóran had smelled the bad smell, and saw two toads as big as horses in the room. Behind them was a small wooden chest. Mayhem called them “Frogs that smell like butt!,” and someone else said, “Let’s hop to it!”

The toads didn't do much, and Kim easily slipped past them. She didn't see a trap on the chest, but didn't trust it after the magically-trapped room, so she called for Caleb. Mayhem croaked at the toads, and they croaked back at him, so Caleb walked past them, and turned off the trap. In it was a measly 60 copper farthings.

There was one other way out of the room, to the west, and they took it.

Res aliae

We broke there. Two character points for the first session, four for the second. Five for Mayhem for the second, since croaking at the toads was cool as well as a little messed up. Obviously, since Joe didn't make it on 12/3, we didn't have the two new characters link up after all.

This dungeon was a little less polished since I had three such I was making, and I didn't know which one they'd pick. However, this is the one for which my wife and daughters made the maps, so I put it out as the one about which Mayhem heard on his critical success on Carousing.

There was wild speculation about what the boar was doing. Roman thinks it's someone's familiar. As the computer said in Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory, "I won't tell, that would be cheating."