Rappan Athuk: Mouth of Doom - Bandits!

 Session played on 2/21

Nick the Pike, Fighter 6 (Me)
Borumar, Thief 9 (Josh)
Biffin, Fighter (NPC)

Still in the Mouth Of Doom, the party heads around to the room the kobolds stay out of. In front of the door are a pair of boots and a gauntlet, all halfling sized. Checking the door, Borumar notes a weird sheen on it, as well as the foot or so of floor in front of the door. Using the gauntlet to try the door handle, it’s discovered that the door is locked, and that the sheen is from some sort of glue. One boot, then the other were stuck to the door. Borumar successfully unlocks the door while avoiding having his tools stick to the door. Within the room, which is entirely coated with the same sheen as far as the party can see, is a chest in the middle of the room. Just inside the door is a skeletal hand cut off at the wrist.

Nick suggests going outside to get a bag of dirt and leaves to make a safe path to the checks, but Borumar uses his crossbow to send over a rope line across the room, sticking the near end to the door. Then sends over a second line under the first, and convinces the halfling (for 200gp on top of their share of the treasure) to climb across and bring back whatever is in the chest.

The halfling makes it across, and thankfully the chest isn’t coated in the glue or locked. 500gp and 1sp were safely recovered before the glove fell off the door handle. Then the boot, and then the other boot, then the rope dropped to the floor, sticking. Seems the glue has a built in timer of some sort?

Nick tossed the silver back into the room. Borumar was bad at math in trying to figure out how the money should be split up.

Continuing on toward where the bandits were supposedly camped out, the party comes to a viewing room, with a closed coffin. 4 zombies laying around the coffin slowly attack the party, the party movies in to attack back (to avoid being bottle necked in the doorway) and one of the hirelings trips on a tripwire. The zombies are cut down easily. Checking the coffin disturbs a grumpy ghoul that apparently slept though the fight with the zombies. It was chopped down before it could seriously hurt anyone, and the heavy necklace it was wearing was taken as booty.

Deciding that the bandits probably weren’t worth the effort, the party circles back to the entrance hall, checks the pit trap (it was empty) then continues around to the east, checking another pit trap (also empty) before coming to a dusty room with a pile of 10 skulls (3 sided pyramid). Investigating further revealed that each skull had a hole in the top of it. The skulls were knocked around, but no gems or gold teeth were found.

Moving on, the next door Borumar unlocked and opened revealed 4 bandits with bows ready for us… Borumar took 3 arrows. Ouch. From behind us another group of bandits led by a big orc and a little rat faced fop. The bandits in the room were killed first, then the orc. With the death of the orc, the rat faced guy called a retreat and slammed the door shut in the party’s faces. Annoyingly the door relocked. Taking a moment to drink some healing potions (getting the halfling up off the floor), the party chesed after them, but lost them, stumbling on a group of giant ants. Not wanting to deal with them, the party retreated to the entrance hall and up the stairs. The ants followed up to where the sunlight hit the stairs. Using some flaming oil and some arrows, 2 of the ants were killed.

The party debats making camp, but decides to hoof it back to the tiny village. Borumar brings the dead uncooked ant to potentially eat and harvest the carapace for armor.  

Nick gives the 2 hirelings a 25gp bonus each.

Gains: heavy necklace, 500gp, body of 1 giant ant
Kills: human bandits, orc bandit
Losses:

Stonehell: Lost Level Burned Library

 Session 157 was played on 7/9

Eiric, Wizard 8 (Kat)
Karl, Dwarf 8 (Julia)
Boris, Cleric 5 (Jeff)
Joho, Mystic (Chris)
Ool, Mystic (NPC)
Borumar, Thief 7 (Josh)
Morgana, Mage 5 (Reggie)
Daton, Fighter 4 (Jay)
Plus war dogs

After dealing with the hogs, the party checks out the next door, and finds a skinny somewhat foppish man hiding behind an old sitting chair. However to get to him, they had to chop down the door, as the voice on the inside of the room refused to unblock the door. Karl used his ax to smash through the wood, grinning, and saying “Here’s Karl!”

The poor man was terrified, and was hiding from the hogs who had tried to eat him (and had eaten his friends). Kayani agreed (didn’t have much choice) to go with the party.

The party sees some goblin scouts, and they see the party. Each just goes their own way.

Continuing their exploration, they come across a tall hallway, and up above a short bridge crossing the hallway about 10’ up. Karl climbs up to scout, and then the rest of the party comes up. To one side of the bridge they find an empty library, and to the other a room with a heaped pile of burned books.

Going back down the hallway, they come to an old armory, and find 4pp hidden inside a rusted old breastplate. Then onto an old dusty kitchen, where the pig tries to make a run for it. He fails, and is soundly smacked about and threatened if he tries that again.

Gains: 4PP
Kills:
Losses:

Cardboard Starship for #StarGrave #3 The Cargo Hauler

Work has begin on my next ship, a short range cargo hauler with cargo pod. I spent a couple hours late last night working on mocking it up. I had a vague idea of what I wanted, but wasn't really sure how exactly I wanted to get there.

 

 

 

 Figuring out sizes and shapes and cutting things in half...

  

 Cargo pod mock up in progress. I have enough of the egg cartons to make 4 of them, so I'll probably build them all up to make additional scatter terrain.

  

The underside showing how the shampoo bottle will be the engine. 

  

 I decided toward the end of the build that I like the cream cheese container right side up better.

Like I said at the beginning, this is just a mock up. I've decided to try doing the cargo pod out of 1" pink foam, rather than building a box. I should be able to get a much more square shape that way, and I don't need it to be hollow. The flatbed will probably be made of 1/2" pink foam. I'd use foam core if I had any, but I don't. I could use cardboard, and still might, but we'll see.

As with my previous ships, the underside will have minimal detailing, as no one is going to see it. I'm hoping to have most of the construction done by the end of the week now that I have a plan!

Stonehell: Bad food, Bad Dining Company

Session 156 was played on 7/5

Eiric, Wizard 8 (Kat)
Karl, Dwarf 8 (Julia)
Boris, Cleric 5 (Jeff)
Morgana, Mage 5 (Reggie)
Daton, Fighter 4 (Jay)
Plus war dogs

Gathering their gear, the party returns to the hidden level via the caves to the bubble fountain room, then exploring around until they come to a room with a sphynx statue and some writing in an unknown language.

“The number of Hells is the key; to unravel a sharpened mystery.”

Probably would have come in handy prior to messing with the dome of magical swords…

Boris dusts some skeletons.

They find a banquet hall laid out for a full feast. Karl tries a slice of pie after he’s unable to convince Lady Eiric to summon a swarm of corgis. Daton throws pies and cakes out of the room, making a mess in the hallway while Karl collects the silverware from the table.

Nearby, the party encounters some large pigs eating… something that was humanoid. The pigs are rude to the party, insulting their smell, their ancestry, and their choice of sexual partners. Karl decides to charge in, the pigs charge back. Unfortunately for the pigs, their lack of armor was a problem, and 3 of 5 were quickly cut down. The other 2 are put to sleep and captured.

Gains: Silverware
Kills: Rude Pigs, skeletons
Losses:

Stonehell: Lost Level Hidden Treasures

Session 155 was played on 7/2

Boris, Cleric 5 (Jeff)
Morgana, Mage 5 (Reggie)
Joho, Mystic (Chris)
Ool, Mystic (NPC)

Returning to the Lost Level, the small party quickly stumbles into a trio of Shadows that drain Joho and Ool’s strength before they’re destroyed by the Mystic’s glowing fists. Additionally the Ring of Strength that Joho was wearing turned out to be cursed and dropped his strength to 3! Boris quickly used Remove Curse so that Joho could take the ring off, and Joho felt his strength return. Morgana holds the ring, and promises to investigate further.

Searching around they explore several empty rooms, trigger a dart trap, find a hidden safe with several old bottles of elven wine, and a fancy drinking horn. Then discover a hidden tea set inside the base of a statue.

Deciding they’d found enough to have made the trip worth the effort, they start making their way back. An ogre tries to waylay them, but Boris Holds the creature, and Morgana slits its throat. They collect some gold from the corpse.

Gains: fancy wine, fancy tea set, gold, and a Horn of Valhalla
Kills: Ogre, Shadows
Losses:

Rappan Athuk: Mouth of Doom!

Session played on 2/14

Nick the Pike, Fighter 6 (Me)
Borumar, Thief 9 (Josh)
Biffin, Fighter (NPC)

While everyone else is busy with removing curses from the gems, Borumar and Nick head back through the portal to the keep, and collect some new rumors, including the location of a smaller side dungeon called the Mouth of Doom! The drunken wizard who tells of the dungeon gives the location for a fairly exorbitant price, and warns of the gnolls that guard it.

Sounds like a fun diversion for them, so they hire a couple of sell-swords, and a plucky halfling, and secure passage on a ferry to the nearby village. The boat ride is long and generally boring. The small village is set on an isthmus protected by a wooden wall on the land side. Poking around to see what can be learned of the Mouth of Doom, the party visits the local necromancer who is friendly, a bit creepy, and offers his services should we be in need. The gem cutter is similarly friendly, but has no intel on the dungeon, other than that people regularly bring him work.

In the trading post, the party finds 7 maps for sale, and Borumar buys all of them. The shopkeeper offers 2,000gp for an accurate map. Taking the maps to the inn, the party reviews the differing scraps of info to glean any useful info from them before heading out to the dungeon.

Leaving the village, they follow the river to a ruined cottage, spend 10 fruitless minutes exploring it (it’s been frequently visited and picked over) before fording the river and heading south to a large cliff face. Carved into it is a massive demon’s screaming face. The 20’ diameter mouth is the entrance to the dungeon. Carefully stepping into the mouth, the party takes the stairs down into the darkness, the gem on Nick’s helmet lighting the way. 

 

In the entrance hall at the bottom of the stairs, were 6 doors. 2 to the east and west, 1 to the north and south. The northern door on the west side was barred by an old portcullis trap that had been broken. With no way to reset it, the mighty Borumar hoisted the gate up, then handed off holding it to the two sell-swords while he checked the door. Beyond was a hallway heading further to the west and also to the north. Continuing west the party came to another door, beyond was a creepy room with fossilized humanoid skeletons partly fused into the walls. Cutting through that room to the north Borumar walked right into a gelatinous cube. Thankfully he didn’t get sucked into it, and Nick managed to avoid getting slammed by it, and the 3 of them hacked it apart while the hirelings guarded the back.

The melting remains of the cube turned up a bit of treasure!

Soon after a secret door was found, and a long passage revealed. Up ahead, a hissing chatter could be heard, and the party readied themselves for an attack. Around the bend came a small troop of kobolds, and they came swinging. Nick cleaved the first one down with a mighty blow, which gave the rest pause. “We don’t want to do this!” Nick yelled. Parlay was called, and Nick paid a blood price of 15gp for the death of Fred, and then an additional 12gp for info on the dungeon. The kobolds were very forthcoming as the gold pieces were clinked in front of them.

Included in the kobold info:

• There’s a large chamber of bandits on the other side of level 1
• A metal snake guards the stairs down to level 2
• There are a couple of known pit traps
• The Kobold camp is outside of the dungeon to the west
• Don’t trust any priests you encounter
• The necromancer in the village is okay and doesn’t bother the kobolds

Gains: opal, 40gp, chain mail armor, spear head, 5 arrow heads, gem
Kills: Fred the Kobold, Gelatinous Cube
Losses: -27gp paid to kobolds

Stonehell: Lost Level wanderings

Session 154 was played on 6/28

Karl, Dwarf 8 (Julia)
Boris, Cleric 5 (Jeff)
Morgana, Mage 5 (Robert)
Borumar, Thief 7 (Josh)
Daton, Fighter 4 (Jay)

Continuing in the lost level, the party comes across some giant white apes, and kills them. Then continue into an old barracks, and find a long lost hidden stash of coin in one of the dry rotted bunk posts. Beyond that, a looted map room. A trio of ghouls try to get the jump on the party, but Boris easily Destroys them.

The next chamber they come to is a large one, with several gargoyles perched on a weird fountain, blowing bubbles. The bubbles are sticky, and Borumar reaches a critical number of them and begins to float up to the ceiling. Karl and Boris grab him, stab the bubbles and keep on the ground. Across the room is an open doorway that leads to some natural caves. Following the fresh air, the party finds itself on the surface.

Heading back into the caves, after hours of crawling in the darkness they come to an opening onto a shear wall. Below, a softly glowing mist, above them the dark form of a bridge, and the bottom of a floating island. In a hidden stash just inside the opening, the find a potion.

Backtracking, they return to the bubble room, then backtrack to the hallway to the teleport chamber. They check to the east, finding a chamber with 4 pillars, each of which has a ring with 4 letters on it, and the rings spin. They try spinning the rings for a couple of combinations, but quickly give up.

Taking the teleporter they return to the Quiet Halls, and then back to town.

Lady Morgana researches Invisibility 10’ radius, Daton trains with a swordmaster, Karl expands his hat shop, Borumar trains with Captain Morgan, getting a deeper mental connection with the dog.

Gains: Small stash of coins, potion of gaseous form,
Kills: giant apes, ghouls
Losses: