Session 11 of an Ongoing Roll20 AD&D 1e Campaign

    Retiring to the dilapidated Inn the adventuring party rested through the evening and then delved once again into the mausoleum. The party discovered the next morn that several graves had been dug and six empty graves lay before them in the old cemetery near three freshly covered graves. Large muddy footprints lead back down into the mausoleum...

(Having opened up the mausoleum last session by dispelling the Wizard Lock the group released the Gravedigger. They never encountered the Gravedigger despite the Ranger Nyloch blowing his horn in the mausoleum. I left it to chance and a die roll, the undead critter must have been 'sleeping' or the sound was muffled behind the stone secret doors but the dice came up a solid Nope. Previous tomb robbers bodies had been laid to graves outside of the mausoleum)

After a short discussion on whether to dig up the grave the party consisting of Ash the Wizard, Mark Anthoney the Priest of Pelor and Brax the Half-Orc warrior accompanied by two Men-At-Arms from Castellan Keep descended into the mausoleum. Nyloch the Half-Elfin Ranger had fallen ill and was kept company in the old inn by other soldiers from the Keep. Retracing their previous steps they discovered the large boot steps faded after getting wet at the entrance until none remained to track by the unskilled eye. With the Men-at-Arms carrying lanterns they backtracked further into the tombs towards the Black Sarcophogus. They are startled however by a large ghastly figure who had crept up on the m from behind but the battle is short lived as Brax cleaved into the large undead gravedigger.

(Role played up the Men-At-Arms who really did not sign up for this sort of thing. The disapproving eyes of the men of the Keep kept grave desecration to a nil as well as the Priest of Pelor opposing it. This encounter had the Men-At-Arms breaking morale upon being confronted with the large Undead Gravedigger and Brax making short work of it with his hard hitting attacks. Sometimes  that happens, a PC will hackity hack hack your otherwise challenging minor big bad)

    A secret passage is discovered eventually that led to a small room with large comfy chair and a table with a variety of gear, coins and gems. A large satchel hung from the side of the large chair and as Ash investigated it eyes open up and the interior resembled the inside of an alien beast. Unable to let go Brax grabbed it as well and was unable to let go either. Both stuck to it in an odd tug of war while the cleric swung his morningstar repeatedly upon the whining creature. "Feed Me ! Fingers ! Me so Hungry" until the cleric offered to feed it if it let go of his friends to which the odd creature complied and paced upon small spider like legs begging for food. Some rations and portions of the defeated undead gravedigger seemed to satisfy the small creature's appetite.

(Old creepy kept items taken from grave-robbers over the years and put them i n this room where he was out of the way. Somewhere along the way he came into contact with a small Mimic which he kept as an odd pet and would feed fingers to on occasion, with the mausoleum locked up it was slowly starving and took its opportunity fora quick bite. After treats were offered by the Priest and a favorable reaction roll it has cuddled up to its new 'friend'. Lets see how this goes over time fora Priest of Pelor carrying a mimic on his side for a satchel.)

   Pushing on towards the chilly basalt sarcophagus the party talks the Men-at-arms to take the lid off while the warrior stands guard. Unfortunately, the Basalt sarcophagus is not empty and its lid is aided in being pushed aside by a gaunt figure in chain mail armor, bejeweled with gold and gem with long claws. In a single stroke a man-at-arms fell dead while the wizard poured magic missile fire while the group discovers the lack of magical weapons and Brax is forced to use a magical dagger recently discovered in the gravediggers chambers to do battle with the fiend. At the end of the battle both men at arms lay dead and Brax feels drained of vitality but with but a scratch they push on back to double check the locked chamber. They discover a burial vault for a family of four and leave the dead undisturbed.

(There were endless warnings of the bad type with the Basalt Sarcophagus but yet, they persisted ;-). A 30 HP Wight in the regalia of a cultists in ornate Chain-mail with the Green Flaming Unholy Symbol made quick work of the two First Level Fighter Men-at-Arms from the Keep. Brax got a nice love touch as well dropping to Second level instantly. Now I allow a reroll of lost Hit Points so it can go really bad or really good for a character who does the up and down dance for level drain. They decide to check the sealed tomb on the way out and surprisingly don't loot it since it was a family crypt of four undisturbed sarcophagi. Identifying it as the burial chamber of the Inn keeper and family no one notices it was way more opulent than what a mere Innkeeper could afford, they also miss nearly every secret door in the complex. This includes a Patriarch tomb of a pirate and hidden passage to the Crypts in the Caves of Chaos. Oh well... doing it the hard way. Burying the Men-at-Arms may literally come to bite them in the ass in a session or two.)

   Gathering the other men at arms they lay the slain soldiers to rest in the open graves and rest for the evening. The following day they opt to take the remaining men at arms and go into the Caverns of Chaos. On their way they surprise a group of Red Cap goblin women and children gathering fish and berries while guards lazily had watch. A quick battle and the non combatants took flight while several guards lay slain and s single prisoner bargains for his life. For information they will allow him to flee and he shares information that there are Bugbears, Mean human bandits who make goblins do bad things, weird orcs and "Killary" a creature of fangs and claw who makes the goblins miserable and eats their babies. If they kill Killary and this time she stay dead they be good friends of the Red Caps and he tells them of the treasure cave where all the "riches" are. Satisfied they allow the goblin to flee and they instead deviate from the path to 'Her" cave and instead approach where the mean bandits are residing in the caves. It resembles the mausoleum a bit and they party creep in but there is a guard near the door. A battle ensues ....

(They trusted a Red Cap goblin.... who of course sends them to the meanest monster in the valley it could think of with the least amount of retaliation for his tribe if they did manage to kill it. Plus the funny ornate hallway that no one ever comes back out of & if they do they are naked which makes it easy for the Red Caps to clobber and then trade down the well for shiny electrum and shells. it was easy to see the goblin was contradicting itself allot but they were happy thinking it would be a truce while they took care of "killary" a large old female troll who mumbles to herself bout it was her time to be 'da meanest chieftess' but I digress.They of course opt to go towards the human bandits instead at the last minute)

    The adventuring group opts fora blitz and rush the guard with a crossbow on his lap and he is quickly dispatched while a guard at the far end of the corridor fires a crossbow and then flees eastward. They pres forward passing two side doors and in another round more bandits join the fray. The y allow themselves to have crossbow fire hold them back in a long passage while a door opens and a rain of steel daggers pepper the men-at-arms killing one. Further back a pair of bandits render Ash unconscious while flanking the parties rear. Rushing back they leave the men-at-arms to hold the side door while they dispatch another bandit while the other flees east back through the door taunting the party to come and get him. With the wizard back up and the duo of the Cleric of Pelor and Half Orc running back to aid the men at arms in the second side room. Crossbow bolts fire at the wizard disrupting a spell while shouts for Stick to come deal with these intruders are heard. Facing hit and run tactics from crossbow and retreating bandits the party begins to withdraw but encounter Stick and a brutal melee ensues supported by continuous magic missile fire. Stick and Brax trade a variety of blows until Brax is laid low by Stick and the Cleric of Pelor laid low beside him by a club to the skull leaving the wizard Ash and a single man-at-arms to fight back against the bandits. Felling another lieutenant the last bandit quits the field. after grabbing a potion off of the fallen half elf stick the cleric is revived and he in turn revives the half-orc. Only one man-at-arms is saved however and movement can be heard in the tombs so they flee back towards the dilapidated Inn.

(This devolved into a rolling melee almost instantly. PCs were put to 0 hit points and brought back quickly to battle while at the end a few went into the negative. I have been debating on how serious to make the negative hit point experience but have made it fairly up and at 'im again so far. I use a negative Con score for Death as opposed to Negative 10, zero is simple unconscious and you will recover in a turn at 1 hit point yourself. Plenty of enemies have crawled away with empty pockets this campaign. I used a variant sub class for the Blue Moon Bandits of Bandit. More of a thuggish thief who prefer ambush and forests as opposed to the urban environment. Ill discuss it in another blog later today once I finish another cup; or pot, of coffee.)

  (There was some fudging as this encounter got hairy rather quick as I had a 3 man party instead of my regular 4. The Ranger's +1 Spear +3 v Elves would have aided in dealing with Stick {Half-elf Fighter 4 w/Str 16 specialized in Staff wielding a depleted Staff of Striking} would have dealt a bit more damage in a short span. But it was determining morale checks for the Bandits which finally broke when it was one on one with the wizard who continually intoned she had infinite magical missiles at her disposal. I had lost track of about 4 level 1 bandits in the encounter who were waiting for opportunistic back-stabs if they pursued the fleeing members of their group. I only fudged the final morale check honestly)

  (A different spell selection for the Wizard would have been devastating to the group of Level 1 and level 2 bandits had there been but a single Sleep cast instead of a full first level selection of magic missile. Not a single Web was cast which seems to be saved for fleeing individuals rather than general melee encounters. I ripped the concept of the Blue Moon Bandits from a paper mini I cam across so they use clubs and daggers allot.)

 (The next session should be interesting indeed. The Blue Moon Bandits did follow the party back towards the dilapidated Inn of which they know of themselves but avoid. The dead Men-at-Arms should be crawling out of their graves as full fledged Wights as well so they have that going for them in their back yard as well, isn't that nice. The Red Cap goblins and Blue Moon Bandits know of the party in the area and they have been the primary forces for the road raids themselves even going back to the sacking of Marlborouch Thorpe which started this entire campaign some 3 months ago.)

#OSR #RPG #DnD #1e

Game Well, Game Often