Game log for 25 February 2018: Pudding is for eating

Dramatis personae

Xóran, fox-man scout
Kim, thief
Mayhem, short barbarian
Ash, squire
Áttikos, holy warrior of the sun god
Grymalkus, whiny cleric of the war god
Caleb, wizard
Kôštē, cleric of the farming goddess

Quid occurrit

After the pudding went poof and the steam blew away, Kim peeked into the room. A quick look showed her that there was a hole in the middle of the ground, and that the ceiling was rusting bronze and not flush with the walls. She nodded her head and understood that going into the room was a bad idea.

The gang marked the door with an "X" and walked back to the bigger room. From there, they took a hallway off from a corner, and found themselves in a latrine where their bodies glowed with a cold fire. Someone wizard must have liked reading in the bathroom enough to make sure the room always had light.

When they walked back to the bigger room, their bodies didn't glow, but the two striges now in the room were hungry, and flew at them from behind. One of them hit Kôštē the cleric and its long beak stuck in her and sucked her blood until she passed out, but aside from that, the gang made short work of them. Caleb bound Kôštē's wounds and she woke up, then drank a potion of Minor Healing she had.

They walked back to the room where they had spent the night, even though they hadn't been awake only a few hours (they guessed it was midday). There, they found three doomchildren also had the idea of holing up in that room, and didn't see them right away, letting them make a shield wall and Xóran get off a shot before they drew near. Ka-boom, ka-boom, ka-boom, all gone.

Truly tired from their few hours of pain, they rested up again. While resting, nothing bothered them, though there was a strong thud at the door. They rested up until they thought it was midnight or so, and Kôštē had healed as much as she could.

After that, they started walking through the maze. After many twists and turns, they found themselves in a big room with a pentagram in the middle. Over the pentagram was a green glow.

In the end, Caleb couldn't resist. And once he disappeared, everyone else stepped into the green glowing light to find him. Well, Ash did try to throw Grymalkus into the circle, but in the end, everyone stepped in of his or her own free will.

The whole gang found itself in a big room in the shape of an octagon, with two hallways leading out. In one corner was some rubble, and trapped in that rubble was a little girl. Caleb asked her her name, she croaked out, “Ongên.” Ash and Kim stepped towards her, but Xóran held out his arm to stop them. "It smells like rotting death here. Let's go."

They hastily made their way out of one of the two hallways. They wandered around some hallways and into a few rooms, one with an old dwarf shrine, and another with a clumsily-lain tile trap which Kim easily disabled. They chose to start back to see if they could find something else.

When they were almost back at the room with the shrine, a grey pseudopod came from behind Caleb and went right past his ear.

Since the pudding had clumsily announced its presence, everyone turned and pounded on it. While it took a few seconds, the gang didn't have too much trouble with the pudding, though it did land a few blows before the heroes ended it.

Res aliae

Weirdness Magnet for the session was that the pudding was back to full health after its trip back to the astral plane, if they were to run into it. They almost didn't, but one last wandering monster check brought it back.

I was determined to handle its tactics better this time around. I picked its random target with a d8 and got Caleb, which meant I was almost assured of taking down a PC. Since they now knew how the pudding was supposed to fight, it's not like they weren't forewarned. It has an attack skill of 14, easy-peasy.

And I rolled a 16.

I tried to justify it taking a Telegraphic Attack in my mind, but I couldn't. It just wasn't that smart, and that led to its obituary, since this time the gang didn't play around. If it were to All-Out Attack, it would have been Strong, not Determined, since how often do you miss with a 14 and no defense roll?

I think they're starting to tire of this dungeon, but right now, they're stuck in it until they find the Workdesk of Destiny. (Or whatever it is.) I gather they'll try to loot the place a bit to break even on the trip; I'm not sure they care about the magic cloak.

Oh, and I have some monsters in Pyramid this month. Not the most exciting topic of an article, but you have to start somewhere, there is a niche, and I write these things to use them. Hopefully someone will do just that.