Archer Arrowsmith - Human Scout (250 points)
Masha Deathfoot - Human Martial Artist (265 points)
Puddin' Noddington - Gnome Thief (272 points)
Mahk Strawngmussle - Human Labourer (62 points)
Uncle Ruckus - Human Wizard (250 points)
Amothius 35th 2546, Outside Kral Aklaz
Before heading out to the dungeon, Uncle Ruckus tasted the white potion and identified it as a potion of sleep, then cast Analyze Magic on the bulls-eye shield and found that it was enchanted with Deflect +3 and at least one more spell. They gave the shield to Masha for now (boosting her to Parry-20 and Dodge-16), rested until Ruckus had regained his FP, and headed to the chimney entrance and were lowered down/climbed; though Mahk fell, Puddin's Knot-Tying harness saved him and he took only 2 damage.
From the broom closet, they headed towards the "wizard door". Puddin' scouted ahead and saw that the female and child giants were both in the room across the hall, so Uncle Ruckus cast Simple Illusion across the hole in the wall to "loop the cameras". Puddin' found no traps and opened it, revealing a small chamber before a second door, with a large orb and lightning bolt insignia and an indented 1" circular mechanism in the center. Ruckus took a look at it, determined that the door was magical, and they remembered that Thrunvir had told them that the door blasted people who tried to open it with lightning.
They decided to take the hour to cast Analyze Magic, and Ruckus identified the door as being enchanted with a 2d Lightning Jet. Puddin' took a closer look at the mechanism and figured that it could be activated by a ring or amulet or something with the orb and lightning bolt insignia; it could still be picked, though it would be difficult. There was some discussion of alternate methods: casting Shape Earth to bypass it, or using a lightning rod ("Like a gnome in plate armour?" "Fair point"), but these proved fruitless.
They decided to ask Thrunvir if he knew of anything of the appropriate size with the lightning and orb insignia, and he informed them that he had seen some wizards wearing rings. They asked if they would be likely to find any in the crypts, but he said that dwarves were typically buried with one of the finest objects they had crafted in their lifetime; the jewellers who had made the rings had surely made better things as well, so they'd have no luck. Mahk remembered that he was injured, and got a Minor Healing before they left.
Ultimately, Puddin' picked the "lock" successfully and a 2d lightning jet swept from floor to ceiling, badly scorching her. The door opened to a staircase up, and the rest of the party held the door while Puddin' went back to get healing from Thrunvir, then headed up once she regrouped. Puddin' opened a door at the top of the staircase after confirming it was non-magical, and saw that there was a hole in the wall on the far side, which overlooked the area with the giants that had been below; the female had left at some point, leaving just the child.
Uncle Ruckus cast another Simple Illusion to block sight from below, and Puddin' scouted out into the hallway which ran east to a T, with a door on the south wall. After checking the south door, which seemed to be identical to the lightning door from downstairs but facing the other way, they opened it and saw a long hallway to the south. Ruckus made a note on the map, and they closed it.
They went north at the T and Puddin' started checking a door for traps when a voice asked something in dwarven. Ruckus pointed out that the door was magic, and everybody started to back up, but the floor turned to quicksand just before Puddin' could make it out. She promptly sank up to her neck, and then the sand turned back into stone, trapping her. Ruckus cast Shape Earth to free Puddin', then Mahk pulled her out, and the party continued up the hallway, making sure to give the door as wide a berth as possible.
They opened a door to the north and found a locked chest, which Puddin' determined was trapped; she used the Tapestry of Glasswall to see inside and saw that there was only a semi-transparent glass bead attached to the lid near where the trap was, and decided to leave it. She then tossed the room and found only several copper pieces, as well as a robe and wizard hat and 5 books that, again, nobody could read. They left the clothes but took 2 of the books before heading east to the next room.
It was some sort of messy, compact library, with cubbyholes filled with scrolls, books on shelves, and loose sheets of paper coating the floor; it would take forever to actually sort through it, even if they could read dwarvish. Uncle Ruckus cast Seek Magic and found a scroll case containing 6 scrolls, which they took, and then rested for 20 minutes. While resting, they heard grunting and the clop of hooves on the stone floor outside, but it passed without disturbing them. Ruckus suggested that it might be a knightly dwarf riding a pony.
The next room was a smaller living space, and searching it turned up only another five copper coins. A second room was locked, and Puddin' picked it open only to receive a stream of alkahest for in the face for 6 damage, though fortunately it did not blind her. The only other thing of note in the room was some alchemical glassware, which Ruckus figured was worthless. Puddin' wanted to go back to Thrunvir to get healed (Ruckus: "Permission denied"), but they voted to continue.
The hallway turned south, and they entered the closest door, which turned out to be a grand observatory, with a colossal brass telescope aimed at the domed ceiling, and a slightly glowing glass orb (Ruckus: "It's magic") in the center. Uncle Ruckus placed his hand on the orb and white points of light connected by lines appeared on the sky, which he identified as the constellations. He fiddled with the orb some more and was able to open the segment of the dome in front of the telescope, revealing a 20' slanted shaft to the surface.
Ruckus took a look through the telescope but it was overcast outside, and then reasoned (thanks to Thaumatology) that this room must be designed to help with casting Astrology, as the constellations, once lined up properly, could be used to cast the spell without going on the surface, or when the stars could not be seen. They noted the irony that the dwarf wizards could predict the downfall of others, but not of themselves.
The next room looked like just another living space until Puddin' walked inside and it filled with a foul-smelling yellow gas; she held her breath, walked back out, and the party resolved to just leave it until it dissipated. They passed by a broom closet, and then found what looked like an alchemy lab. There was a glass bottle filled with some kind of fizzy amber liquid ("It looks like beer" "It's probably mustard gas"), which Ruckus immediately tasted, and discovered to be a euphoria potion.
While Ruckus packed up the glassware into a portable kit, Puddin' searched the room and found 3sp for her troubles. Just as they finished, 4 halflings showed up right behind the party members in the hallway, and asked the party what they were doing here. Masha introduced herself as a "Sentinel of Good", while Archer grumbled aggressively and gripped her bow. They stuck to the cover story that they were just looking for surviving dwarves, but the halflings said that all the dwarves here were definitely dead.
The halflings claimed to just be looting the place, and that they had finally found a ring that opened the door to the south, only to find somebody else already here! They talked for a while, and the party concealed the existence of Thrunvir, though they told the halflings that they were camped outside. Puddin' proposed teaming up, and the halflings went off into a huddle, where Archer thought she heard them say "Yeah and then we rob the one with the bow, yeah, yeah", and returned with an offer: that they split loot 50/50.
The party agreed, and asked if they'd seen any ghosts (they'd met an angry one who kept challenging them to duels, but just ignored him), if they could help fill out their map ("We was never taught to read maps"), if they knew any wizards or dwarves (yes to both, though the wizard was busy and the dwarf was real sad), and if there were any other interesting things they'd seen ("Some vines over on the other side tried to strangle Vinnie"). The halflings also said they were there on "vacation".
The party asked to be led to the sad dwarf, and the halflings started off but stopped at a richly appointed door to the south, drooling slightly; one of them exclaimed that he could "feel" the gold calling out to him. They investigated the door and started to lockpick it, but Puddin', disgusted by the "lesser thieves", forced them out of the way (eliciting grunts of "Ugh, gnomes"). Once the lock was picked, it vanished. To decide who would go in first, one of the halflings pulled out a set of dice, and offered to roll for it; whoever rolled higher, would open the door.
Puddin' wisely refused the offered die, and Gizmo'd a loaded one instead; the halflings rolled higher and nervously opened the door. Inside was a richly appointed office and living space; a rich bed with silk sheets, a rack of dress robes in various colours decorated with gold embroidery and gemstones, and a rich mahogany desk. As the halflings walked in, one of the robes flew out from the rack and attempted to put itself onto one of them. He was on board, and it settled around his body in a very un-sinister manner.
This caused an argument to break out between Puddin' and the halflings; they claimed that 50/50 meant they got half of the robes, including that one. They were unable to be swayed, and the party conceded while Puddin' got to searching the room. Puddin' found another very fancy and high-end key, very similar to the one they'd found on the skeleton in the mountains, and Ruckus noticed a glowing magical circle when a halfling took the rug on top of it, which he determined to be nothing special (thanks to a crit-fail on Thaumatology).
They finished tossing the room and the halflings brought forth a coinpurse containing 17gp, 100sp, and 35cp ("See? We're not trying to rip you off, or else we would have just stolen it!") and Puddin' found a diamond-tipped staff. Puddin' suggested they wait until they get back to town to split the loot, but the halflings declined. After some negotiation, the party got 5 robes, the key, and some coinage. That done, the halflings took the door to the hallway south and pointed to a gap in the floor and east wall where they'd have to sneak past.
Instead of sneaking, Uncle Ruckus crit another Simple Illusion (making it function as a one-way mirror), and they proceeded cautiously, hugging the wall as they stepped across the gap while giants talked below. Archer "Lone Gunman" Arrowsmith gave into her Bloodlust, nocked an arrow, drew the bowstring to her cheek, and spent three seconds aiming for the eyes, only for the string to snap from the sustained stress (and a crit failure). Dejected, she continued after the rest of the group, who were led around a corner and down a set of stairs.
They went around another corner on the ground floor, headed down a hallway to the west, were guided over a tripwire, and Ruckus cast another Simple Illusion on a hole in the wall. Finally, the halflings knocked on one of the doors and yelled at "Sturri" to come out and "read some dwarvish or some shit". A surly looking dwarf answered the door, his cheek marked with a prominent X tattoo, the mark of a murderer sentenced for death, and asked what they wanted.
The party asked their questions, and Sturri rudely answered in as few words as possible (though they learned he wasn't from Kral Aklaz), then agreed to read their scrolls and books for 1sp per scroll or 10 minutes of book. Mahk handed over the scrolls and 6 of the silver pieces they'd found, and in a matter of minutes Sturri returned the pile of identified (though still unusable) scrolls; Sunbolt, Fog, Spark Cloud, Lightning, Astrology, and Suspend Curse.
That done, they left the dwarf to his business, and the halflings led the party to "their wizard", and after a bit of internal arguing (and an impromptu fistfight), one of them was pushed up to the door and knocked before hastily retreating. A dwarf skeleton opened the door, and four more stood, arms crossed, beside a hunched man in a tattered robe and wizard hat who was stirring a cauldron which emitted green fog.
In a voice halfway between nails on a chalkboard and a rooster, the wizard, Odo, asked what he could do for the party, and they explained the earth to sand to earth trap to see if he could deal with it. He pondered the question for a moment, ignored Puddin' when she asked where he'd gotten the cauldron, and then replied that he could possibly help them... if they helped him first. The party were more than willing to pay for his services, but he declined, and stated that he needed more "samples" from the crypts, but that a bothersome ghost kept disrupting him there. He wanted the party to "kill" it.
Odo offered to have his skeletons (Skeletors 1 through 5) show them down to the offending ghosts, but the party pointed out that they had no way of dealing with a ghost. Ruckus asked if he could gather the samples himself, but Odo, after looking around carefully (and ranting a bit about nosey clerics), said that it would take a necromancer's touch (gasp!) to find them. Even so, he explained the ingredients he wanted (including such wondrous things as ghostly ectoplasm, a baby's skull, and the jaws of forbidden lovers), and Ruckus figured that Odo was attempting to brew a Lichdom potion.
Puddin' asked why Odo couldn't deal with the ghost himself, and he replied that he probably could, but that mean ghost kept possessing the Skeletors and making them destroy each other. They bought some healing potions from Odo ("They come with a necromancer's guarantee!"), sold him their death potion, and headed back upstairs with the halflings. The halflings started back to the wizards' area, but the party wanted to go west to check out the barracks instead.
Before splitting up, the halflings asked how the party had gotten into Kral Aklaz, and, when they heard of their route through the chimneys, responded "Wow, you guys sure are wacky, we just came in through the terlets". The party passed by several doors, then came to a bridge that overlooked the main hall below and a door on the west wall. They went through the door, and as they entered into a barracks with a sand-filled sparring circle, a ghostly blue dwarf appeared, wielding a shield and a hammer crawling with lightning.
He shouted at them to halt, smashed his hammer on his shield, and challenged them to a duel. After some conversation ("Wait, do you know a necromancer?" "I KNOW NOTHING OF ANY NECROMANCER, DUEL ME!") the party just awkwardly headed headed to a door on the north wall, and after a moment of pleading for somebody to duel him, the dwarf slammed his hammer on the shield again, this time creating a peal of thunder that echoed off the stone walls, then disappeared.
Uncle Ruckus heard a rumbling voice below call out "What was that?" in Giant. Puddin' took the usual amount of time to check the north door for traps, then went through, revealing a guardpost with arrow slits and murderholes looking down. She snuck out into the room and looked down to see four giants looking back up, one of whom started to ready a boulder.
Puddin' backed out into the barracks, and, as the sound of smashing stone filled the room, the party decided to hang out there until the giants got bored. After five minutes, something hit the north wall, and they decided to double back to the wizard area instead. Again, Ruckus cast a Simple Illusion to get past the giants, but one of them saw the continual light coming and was perplexed when it disappeared and nobody came out.
They made it back to the shock door with the lightning and orb insignia, and Puddin' picked it, got badly burned by the jet of lightning, and passed out. Mahk scooped her up and the party headed through and to the staircase to the west, Ruckus looped the cameras again, and the party went down to the ground floor again before realizing that Ruckus wouldn't be able to cast his spell without the giants seeing them, so Archer went back upstairs.
She threw a rock through the illusion, to the far side of the room, which distracted the child giant sitting there and gave Ruckus the time he needed. They went back to the temple and knocked on the doors, though they had to wait for Thrunvir to crawl over and open it as Puddin' was indisposed. Puddin' was healed back up to full, and the party then conspired to trap the doors to the temple, to make sure the halflings didn't find Thrunvir.
He was less than excited on having his only possible ways out blocked, and believed he could reason with anybody else, as he had with the party. Archer predictably failed to convince him, but they just ignored him and jammed the lock to the west with Shape Earth and rigged the sleep potion on a tripwire on the eastern door. The party then headed out to the broom closet and started climbing/hauling people out.
Puddin' ended up having to climb back down to tie a harness for Uncle Ruckus and crit-failed, taking 21 crushing damage and got knocked out again. Masha (defaulting from Climbing) tied a harness for Puddin' (which held) and the rest of the party made it out of the chute and back to camp without further issues.
Notes:
I realized that neither Puddin' nor Archer had tents, and made Archer do a retroactive Survival (Mountains) roll to build a lean-to. Archer succeeded, so nobody had FP loss.
An error I made on Analyze Magic on the shield: I somehow misread it as identifying the highest-energy effect, instead of the lowest.
The player who plays Elana and Vaelcor took the map after the last session, but couldn't make it to this one. Fortunately for the players, he uploaded some pictures of it, which worked out okay.
Ironically, Puddin's player argued that the sand turning back to stone should have been more lethal. She would have died had she not been freed fairly quickly, as random encounters are much more deadly when you can't move or act in any meaningful way.
Connoisseur now has no specializations and determines the value of fancy goods (fine woods, fancy clothes, perfumes, etc); fancy weapons or armour use the appropriate Armoury specialization, and Merchant still evaluates gems.
I pointed out after the session concluded that the party might want to use the Phial of the Mad Alchemist to make a potion of flight, which would let Mahk carry everyone out with no rolls required. In the future, I suspect they'll take the telescope shaft instead.
The giants have effectively destroyed several rooms and a bridge, which alters the layout of the dungeon substantially, and limits the movement of the players.
XP was 2 (1 for loot and 1 for finding a new way in/out), MVP went to Ruckus for his illusions and other misc wizardry.
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