After a few weeks off, we finally had the opportunity to play the seventh session of our Dungeon Module B1: In Search of Unknown AD&D 2e game. You can read past play reports here.
The roster for this session was as follows:
- Llombaerth, CG elf thief 2 (Adam)
- Malkara, N human mage 1 (Maya)
- Rory the Small, LN human fighter 1 (David)
In our last session, the party spent some time in Timbershore licking their wounds. They regrouped, adding Robbernar the cleric and Malkara the mage to the team. They also recruited Walgretor, a half-elf porter and torchbearer, and Armstrong and Booker, a pair of human men-at-arms. Llombaerth took some time to gather information about Timbershore's criminal element so that the party might smuggle goods into town on their next return visit. They had an uneventful journey back to Quasqueton, felling some trees along the way to make an impromptu river crossing.
They found that Grilk's goblins had been attacked by orcs in the time since they'd been gone. The goblins had killed a few orcs and turned the rest to flight, but one goblin, Tobb, had been captured in the ensuing chaos. The remaining goblins had erected barricades at strategic choke points, and had freed a "demon worm" and corralled it into the corridor leading to the orcs' territory. The party investigated the bedchamber in which the worm had previously been trapped, obtaining some books and a nice cloak, and found two chests bursting with treasure, which they concluded was actually magically-disguised rocks.
We picked up from there. The party debated whether they should do anything with the rocks/treasure, such as give it to the goblins as payment in advance for some future service, or have two of their hirelings lug around one of the chests in case it proved useful. Ultimately, they decided to leave it where it was.
They set out to explore more of the dungeon, heading down a long, twisting corridor straight across from the bedchamber. As they approached a T intersection, they heard movement up ahead. The bulk of the party retreated with the lantern, while Llombaerth snuck up ahead in darkness. He succeeded on his Move Silently check, peeked around the corner, and spotted a lone goblin, its head cocked to listen in the party's direction.
Llombaerth pressed himself up against the wall, lying in wait. The goblin began to approach. When it got close enough, Llombaerth leapt out and grabbed it, muffling its cries for help. He dragged his captive back to the rest of the group.
After some questioning, the party learned that the goblin was Pigmug, of the Stonespeaker Clan. Once a member of Grilk's gang, Pigmug had since opened his ears to the Stone That Speaks, and to Drak, the powerful orc leader through which the Stone speaks to its devotees. The party asked Pigmug how many orcs and goblins were part of the Clan, but Pigmug was not good at counting. They tried to convince Pigmug that they were Stonespeakers as well, and that anyone can speak to the Stone if they're brave and strong enough. Pigmug caught this as a lie, and the questioning deteriorated. They knocked out Pigmug and decided to drag him back to Grilk's gang.
Grilk thanked them for bringing Pigmug back into the fold, and the party charged Grilk with deprogramming the goblin and learning what he knew of Clan Stonespeaker. They returned to explore the rest of the corridor.
They went left at the T intersection and found two doors. They listened at the first one and heard orcish voices in idle conversation on the other side. They heard nothing from the other door, so they tried opening it, but found it stuck. Forcing it would make a lot of noise and might attract the orcs, so they left it to explore the other branch of the intersection.
That led to another T intersection with an alcove at the end. To the right, they spotted one of Grilk's goblins, manning the barricade. They concluded correctly that the alcove at the end of the corridor must be the other side of one of the one way secret doors connecting to the entrance hall and spent some time learning how to open it. They returned to the T intersection and this time explored the left corridor.
The corridor went more or less straight a long way, then turned left. They followed it and heard a thumping sound at the end of the hall, beyond the light of their lantern, as if something big was throwing itself at the wall or a door. Llombearth once again snuck off ahead towards the darkness.
Though he passed his Move Silently check again, the thumping suddenly stopped. There was something between a hiss and screech, and suddenly something big was barreling down the corridor towards them. Most of the party was surprised as a horse-sized worm or maggot came wriggling into the light of their lantern, a mass of tentacles writhing from its armored head.
Bronson immediately lost morale and meant to flee, wrestling with Walgretor for control of the lantern. Rory leapt into action, putting himself between Llombaerth and the worm, hacking with his halberd. In the madness, his attack missed completely, his weapon clattering off the nearby wall.
Armstrong loosed a pair of arrows at the worm, heedless of the possibility that he might strike Rory by mistake. One arrow sailed just high of the thrashing beast, while another plinked harmlessly off of its armored head.
On the following round, Malkara threw a trio of darts. One bounced off Rory's armor, a second off the worm's head, and the third found meaty purchase in the worm's face, dealing maximum damage (which for a dart is 2).
Llombaerth scrambled back towards the rest of the group, lobbing a flask of alchemist's fire as he fled. He hit an AC of 2...but hit Rory by mistake! Rory burst into flames, but Llombaerth rolled low on the damage (just 3 on 2d6).
Bronson wrestled the lantern away from Walgretor and fled back down the corridor, leaving the party in darkness, were it not for the fact that Rory himself was alight.
Armstrong loosed another pair of arrows, one bouncing off of Rory's armor while another sailed past the worm.
I considered whether the worm would press its attack against Rory, considering he was on fire, until I realized that this type of worm has "Special" morale. According to the Monster Manual, this creature "will continue to attack as long as any of their opponents are unparalyzed." As the players were about to learn, the dreaded "demon worm" of Quasqueton was none other than a carrion crawler!
The carrion crawler pressed the attack, lashing at Rory with its eight tentacles. With THAC0 17, against Rory's AC of 4, it needed a 13 or better to hit. It rolled a 6, a 9, a 10, a 12...and a 20! Fortunately, the carrion crawler's tentacles don't actually do any damage, so the critical hit would have no additional effect, but Rory needed to make a saving throw versus paralyzation or else be paralyzed for 2d6 turns. He needed a 14 or better to succeed. He rolled a 19!
The carrion crawler attacked three more times, rolling a 5, another 5, and a 2! Wow! Needing just a 13 or better to hit, each of the carrion crawler's attacks had a 40% to hit. With eight attacks, it was statistically likely to hit at least three times. The probability of it missing seven times was 2.8%!
Rory, still on fire, stood his ground and pressed the attack. As a specialist with the halberd, he could attack twice this round. His first hack missed wildly, while the second bounced off the rubbery hide of the crawler's body - softer than its armored head, but still tougher than leather.
On the following round, Rory fell back to the rest of the group. Malkara waited for him to be clear of the worm, then loosed more darts. Two more bounced off the armored head, while the third found flesh and scored another 2 damage. Rory stopped, dropped, and rolled on the floor. Walgretor, who was carrying a bucket of orc soup from Grilk's lair, used it to douse the flames. The smell was unbearable, but Rory was no longer on fire. The corridor was plunged into darkness.
Luckily, Llombaerth could see in the dark. He threw another flask of alchemist's fire down the corridor between the party and the crawler. The crawler, heedless of the flames, charged through them to get at its prey. It shrieked as the flames engulfed it, its body twisting as its fatty segmented body bubbled and burst, painting the walls of the corridor with its steaming innards. It crashed to the floor in front of the party, its legs twitching in its death throes.
The crawler had 9 hit points left, and the burning alchemist's fire did 10 damage on a roll of 2d6.
Bronson was long gone, so the party lit another torch and collected themselves. They waited for the flames to burn out, then proceeded down the hall, coming to a pair of door on the left. At the first door they heard nothing. At the second, which had been battered and scratched by the crawler's attempts at entry, a goblin's voice on the other side demanded to know who they were.
The party identified themselves as the slayers of the demon worm, and again claimed to be Stonespeakers. They told the goblin that the Stone demanded it open the door to them. The goblin stalled for time, and the party could hear it dragging furniture to barricade the door. They managed to convince the goblin that the Stone was displeased with it, upon which it opened the door for them.
They found themselves in another bedchamber, this one with a canopy bed, a nightstand, chest of drawers, a full-length mirror, a sculpted basin, and a tapestry on the wall. The goblin was Numbnuts, and he was here searching for any missed treasure which he might offer to Drak in order to gain favor. The party convinced Numbnuts that they knew where a lot of treasure was to be found, but they would only tell him in exchange for information.
Again they asked how many orcs and goblins there were, but Numbnuts was also not good at counting. Slug was the goblin who could count. Lumpknuckles was good at listening. Numbnuts was good at drawing. The party demanded that Numbnuts draw them a map of the Stonespeaker Clan's territory, and Numbnuts obliged.
Numbnuts drew a big rectangle with corridors bordering the top, bottom, and left side. He drew a small rectangle within the larger one in the bottom right corner, which was the room they were in now. To the left of it, across an adjoining hall, was a "junk room" where Lumpknuckles would be. A winding hallway, patrolled by Slug, meandered throughout the larger rectangle. Further to the left of the junk room was the "captain's room". Brubar the orc liked to hide in there and get drunk.
To the north of that were two more rectangles side by side. The left rectangle was the "stairs room", where Muv the orc stood guard against incursions from the orcs who worshipped the Stone Below, a splinter faction of Drak's orcs who were now enemies of the Stonespeakers. The right rectangle was the "Stone's chamber", where Drak went to speak to the stone and to feed it the essence of heretics. Just above those two was another rectangle, the "treasure room", guarded by the orc Rheev.
In the upper right corner of the large rectangle was a big area where Drak sat on his throne, guarded by his strongest warriors. The door that party had listened at earlier (where they heard orcish voices on the other side) led directly into the throne room.
With that, we called it for the night. The party has defeated one of Quasqueton's most dangerous monsters and has begun making small forays into hostile orc/goblin territory. I'm looking forward to seeing how it shakes out.
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