We played the eighteenth session of our Dungeon Module B1: In Search of Unknown AD&D 2e game last night. You can read past play reports here.
The roster for this session was as follows:
- Llombaerth, CG elf thief 4 (Adam)
- Mirkle, N human fighter 2 (Maya)
- Egbert, human necromancer 1 (NPC)
- Indur, gnoll (NPC)
- Four friendly zombie adventurers (NPCs)
- Bilodeau, man-at-arms (NPC)
- Graves, man-at-arms (NPC)
- Brazile, halfling porter, and his dog, Ripper (NPC)
- Ejiofer, human porter (NPC)
- Lendeborg, human porter (NPC)
- Steinbach, human porter (NPC)
- Walgretor, half-elf porter (NPC)
Last time we played, the party looted some gnoll corpses and headed back to the dungeon's secret entrance to rest. Some wild dogs bothered them right around dawn, but Llombaerth threw them some food, and they went on their way. They constructed a crude shelter to protect their camp from outside threats, and Egbert determined that the scroll they had found was a 9th level sleep scroll.
The party went back into the dungeon with Egbert, Indur, Lendeborg, and Walgretor. They returned to the cave with the pool, hoping to open the trap door in the ceiling, but couldn't get it to budge. They found more bluish ore in a nearby cave, collected a sample, and considered the possibility of mining it in the future.
They followed a long, curving tunnel and found a secret door in the wall. Inside the secret cavern were more shriekers, which the party dispatched quickly, without attracting more monsters. Scattered about the cave were thousands of copper coins. They left these for now, but filled a sack with coins and gave it to Indur, with the promise of more if he served them well.
The continued along the tunnel and found a worked stone chamber filled with mining equipment and stairs leading up. In an adjoining room, they found a sort of museum with painted frescoes depicting Rogahn and Zelligar, a framed letter from the hamlet of Timbershore thanking Rogahn and Zelligar for their aid in the war against the barbarians, a manacled barbarian chieftain's skeleton, and the chieftain's sword, which they took.
They ascended the stairs and found that they led back to the throne room on the upper level which had been used by Drak Stonespeaker. Rather than confront Mangug's orcs now, they went back downstairs to finish exploring the lower level.
Continuing down the curving tunnel from the room with the stairs, they found four zombie adventurers trapped in a thick web. They took the zombie wizard's spellbook and, determining that the zombies had no "master" and were docile and pliable, decided to free them. They ushered the zombies before them as they continued down the tunnel. Suddenly, they heard orcish voices to their left, raising a cry. They sent their zombies shambling down the tunnel after them.
We picked up there. The party sent the zombies in front of them as meat shields. The tunnel was narrow and wound to the right and then to the left. The party did not have line of sight on the orcs. They heard the orcs talking to one another, and heard another, more diminutive male voice protesting in common as the orcs jostled him.
By the time the party caught sight of the orcs, they were just 20' away. The orcs had a gnome they had taken prisoner and shoved out in front of them as a shield. The orcs were ready with their bows, and fired arrows at the zombie vanguard as they approached. Three arrows struck the zombie in the center, who appeared to have been a burly fighter in life. The zombie hardly noticed the wounds.
All three of the zombies became distracted by the gnome and began to fall upon him. The party ordered the zombies to attack the orcs, not the gnome, but this only seemed to confuse them. They froze in place, wasting a round. The party told the gnome to run past the zombies and join them. The gnome, looking to the orcs and then the zombies, saw an opening and darted past the slack jawed zombies and took shelter behind the party. Llombaerth gave him a dagger.
The party rallied the zombies to press the attack against the orcs. Mirkle followed them, hoping to stab through the front rank with her spetum. The rest of the party readied to fire a volley of projectiles past the zombies. The orcs drew their spears and shields and braced for the zombies' charge.
One orc managed to hit the zombie thief, but only for minimum damage. One of Llombaerth's arrows was just narrowly deflected by an orc's shield. The gnome threw Llombaerth's dagger at on of the orcs and scored a hit, though the orc still stood. The thief zombie scored a staggering blow against the orc which had stabbed her. The burly fighter clobbered the orc in the center, bringing it to the ground. The zombies stopped what they were doing to feed on the fallen orc.
With the zombies distracted, the remaining two orcs looked to retreat. Llombaerth threw a flask of flaming oil over their heads, which shattered and exploded behind them, cutting off their retreat and inflicting splash damage. The rest of the party pressed the attack. Indur hit one of the orcs with an arrow, and Egbert managed to bring it down with a well-placed dart.
The party offered surrender to the remaining orc, and promised it good conduct. The orc glanced at its allies being devoured by zombies and opted to throw its shield and spear on the fire. The party navigated around the feeding zombies and secured the remaining orc with rope.
They learned that the orc's name was Zhukk. They asked Zhukk if he was affiliated with Ghudgak. Zhukk nodded to the mangled orc corpse on the ground, surrounding by feasting zombies, and sadly said "Ghudgak". The party asked how many of Ghudgak's orcs were left, to which Zhukk said he was the last. Shal, Shang, and Zorel had died in the pit trap, the party had just killed Ghudgak and Zhuk (not to be confused with Zhukk), and Bhadgak had been smote by the Stone.
The Stone? Zhukk gestured to the cavern to the party's left. There, they saw a large, glowing chunk of rock towering over the cavern. Zhukk explained that the orcs ate the flesh of the Stone. It granted boons to the worthy, banes to the unworthy, and occasionally struck down true heretics, like Bhadgak. Bhadgak had eaten the flesh of the Stone, began choking, turned purple, and died. The orcs had given him over to the Dead Eaters as a peace offering.
Dead Eaters? Zhukk gestured to the tunnel to the party's right. There was a fork in the tunnel, with one branch to the left and another which went straight ahead and turned right. The Dead Eaters lived down the latter tunnel. Ghudgak had arranged with them the exchange of corpses to allow the orcs to live unmolested.
The party questioned the gnome next. They learned that is was Wilros Wackledeckle. He and his wife, Breela Billowbadge, had come to Quasqueton in search of treasure so that they could afford to buy a home and start a family in Timbershore. They had negotiated their way past the goblins on the upper level and eventually found an old forge. They had climbed down a hole in the floor of an adjoining room to reach the lower level, at which time they were captured by Ghudgak's orcs. The orcs had forced the gnomes to consume the Stone's flesh. Wilros had survived, but Breela had been struck dead and given over to the Dead Eaters.
The party decided to try their luck with the Stone. Mirkle tried it first, breaking off a chunk of rock and inserting it into her mouth. She gained a permanent +1 to her Wisdom score. Llombaerth went next, gaining a permanent +1 to his Intelligence score. They invited Egbert to partake as well. To their surprise, the chunk of rock turned into a gemstone in Egbert's mouth. Llombaerth took advantage of his improved Intelligence score and identified the gem as a 500 g.p. topaz. They allowed Egbert to keep it, since he had risked his life for it.
Llombaerth had the idea to conceal a bit of rock inside some orc flesh, and fed a bit to each zombie. The zombies mindlessly chomped down on the rocks, shattering their teeth, but it had an effect. The zombie thief's shortsword began to glow in its scabbard. Llombaerth took it (the zombie didn't seem to mind) and examined it. It felt lighter, its edge sharper. Llombaerth held onto it.
The wizard zombie's mortification was ever so slightly reversed. She was still an undead thing, but looked like she had been dead for less time. The burly fighter's body pushed out the arrows protruding from its torso, and the party watched as its wounds knitted together. The less burly fighter disappeared entirely, though the party could still poke her and could see bits of orc gore being torn from the carcass and fed into an invisible maw.
Indur and Zhukk had an argument, which the party had to break up. The gnolls had been enemies of Ghudgak's orcs, and Indur wanted the party to kill Zhukk. The party explained that they had promised Zhukk good conduct, and could not kill him unless he crossed them. They promised Indur that if it came to that, Indur would be allowed to kill Zhukk himself.
The party asked Zhukk where Ghudgak kept his treasure. Zhukk reluctantly indicated the tunnel to the left (the one that didn't house the Dead Eaters). At the end of 20' tunnel, the party found an assortment of electrum and platinum, plus a black pearl worth another 500 g.p.
The party asked Wilros to show them how he had gotten down here. They backtracked about 70' down the tunnel leading to Ghudgak's lair and took a right, walked 20', then took a left. 50' down the tunnel they saw the pit trap from earlier. About halfway down the tunnel was a small cavern on the left. There they found a rope hanging from a hole in the ceiling 40' above.
The party took some time to deliberate. Should they continue exploring the lower level? There was a tunnel just outside of this one that they hadn't explored. There were also the Dead Eaters, who the party decided not to confront. Should they go back upstairs to confront Mangug's orcs? If they were going to do that, they would want to get their mercenaries from outside. They decided to exit the dungeon and reconvene with their hirelings.
Realizing that they had left the zombies back in Ghudgak's lair eating orc corpses, they went back to retrieve them. They offered Zhukk an ultimatum: they could either leave him hogtied and defenseless somewhere in the dungeon for some monster to come upon, or, they could untie him, give him a weapon, and pay him 20 g.p. to fight beside them against Mangug's orcs. Zhukk did not want to fight other orcs (Mangug's orcs were unfamiliar to him, and he had no quarrel with them), but it seemed he had no choice. He agreed. The party brought him with them, but didn't untie him just yet.
So the party took Egbert, Indur, Wilros, Zhukk, their two hirelings, and their four zombies all the way back to the cavern with the secret entrance. As they crossed the long cavern and turned towards the secret door, they were confronted by five warriors dressed in hides and wielding spears and shields.
The warriors were led by a woman, who did not identify herself. She said that they were the people of the Black Crag, who lived in this region before the evildoers Rogahn and Zelligar drove them out and stole their relics. They had learned of plunderers selling their goods in Timbershore and had come to investigate. The party's mercenaries had surrendered without a fight, and all of their hirelings outside were now prisoners.
The party explained that they were retrieving the artifacts stolen by Rogahn and Zelligar, and offered to join the people of the Black Crag in recovering their lost relics. They explained that there were orcs on the upper level which they were trying to root out. The warriors looked at the party with Indur, Zhukk, and their zombie allies, and accused them of fraternizing with monsters and practicing black magic.
The party didn't see much of a way out of this, and with the numbers of their side, decided to fight. We wrapped there.
This was a bit of a slow one. The skirmish with the orcs took some time because there were so many pieces involved, even though it lasted just a few rounds. The party had two new NPCs to question, and spent a good deal of time experimenting with the magic stone - which was fun! A good mix of combat and social interaction with a bit of exploration mixed in. It looks like the party has another fight on their hands next session, so we'll see how that goes.
The party continues to accrue NPC followers, it seems. It's unwieldy, but fun. I love when the party starts to roll through the dungeon squad deep. I'm looking forward to seeing how things shake out next time.
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