Kythorn 6
Kythorn 6, 1370:
High = 70, Low = 55
Trace precipitation (1/10" rain) starting @ 8:20am
Calm.
Overcast.
Eventually, Henkles and Staric took the two sailors into the
village to hand them over to the local constabulary. They
questioned everybody for several hours before summoning the First
Captain, Tranjer Rolsk, who got them all to tell their stories
again. Henkles and Staric claimed that they didn't know what was
in the chest, because they had been told it was dangerous to know.
The First Captain (and the local watch) learned that the Star
Chaser was crawling with zombies from the dwarves, so Henkles told
that whole story too. Mr. Rolsk was not pleased. He said that he
would hold the two sailors for a few days, but that they really
hadn't done anything wrong so they would be realeased, with all of
their stuff, after that. He insisted that Captain Maanamere was
to come speak with him immediately, and that the crew of the Star
Chaser should make ready to sail. He also sent a boat out to the
Sea Vault to deliver the message that there would be no conflict
in his harbor or everybody in the village would take a hand
in putting a stop to it.
While that was going on on the surface, the party continued to
explore the mine. They went back to the ENE tunnel where they had
first seen the last seven skinks and headed ENE for about 540',
NNE, for about 610' and NE for about 350' before coming to another
door. Beyond the door (and a little more corridor) was a typical
30'x30' staging room, but again the furniture was smashed and the
tailings had been previously emptied of corstal. There were other
exits going N and E.
Going through the E door, the party was hit by a deadfall trap. A
tripwire 20' beyond the door dropped rocks and broken glass on
everyone along the first 25' of tunnel. Some damage was taken
(this is when the party learned about pompholyx dust) and Find
Traps was cast.
550' east down the tunnel, the party found a place where a small
natural tunnel had been cut through by the mining tunnel. It was
about 1.5' to 3' diameter and about 3' above the mine tunnel
floor. 10' in in either direction, somebody had hung leather
strips to block the view beyond. There were also signs that the
side tunnels had been boarded over at some point, but that had
been torn down. Ag explored one tunnel and discovered an arsenic
trap a few feet beyond the leather strips, designed to poison
anyone crawling or walking through the tunnel who put a hand or
foot in it. (He survived.)
100' later the tunnel turned NNE and continued for about 620',
past another point where a small natural tunnel was intersected,
before ending at a door. Beyond that was a staging room which had
been set with a deadfall trap similar to the last one, but which
was otherwise similar to the previous room. Two exits went NNW
and ESE. The ESE tunnel wound for about a thousand feet, passing
another natural tunnel intersection, before abruptly stopping.
Extensive examination showed no hidden doors.
End of 2017-12-24 Game
Returning to the trapped junction room, the party headed NNW.
After 220', the tunnel turned NNE and continued about 500', past
another natural tunnel intersection, to another door. When Ag
opened that door, a bloated human corpse lurched out. It's body
was swolen in the manner chracteristic of arsenic poisoning and it
was giving off a cloud of arsenic gas as it moved. Ag, Dexter and
Maanamere were all poisoned before Dexter was able to destroy the
zombie. Darius used Alternate Reality to give Dexter a second
saving throw, which worked. He then used Slow Poison on Ag and
Maanamere, which also afforded both of them an additional saving
throw. Ag saved but Maanamere did not, meaning Maanamere had 8
hours to live from that point (until around 11am) if no cure was
found.
175xp to Ag, Brogan, Darius, Denyae, Dexter, Maanamere, Steve,
and Tristan for an arsenic-soaked zombie.
Beyond the zombie was a collapsed section of tunnel. It looked
like there was room to crawl over the rubble, but the party
elected to turn back at that point. When they got back to the
trapped junction room, they encountered 4 kobolds and collected 5
oz. of corstal from their corpses a round or two later.
28xp to Ag, Brogan, Darius, Denyae, Dexter, Maanamere, Steve,
and Tristan for kobolds
Heading back to the large junction room, they tried the ESE
tunnel, but it dead ended after abot 500', apparently where an
exploratory tunnel encountered a pompholyx deposit.
The party returned to the natural cavern complex and the
mushroom-filled room where they had first descended. They tried
attracting more monsters with shriekers, but failed, so they
killed them.
360xp to Ag, Brogan, Darius, Denyae, Dexter, Maanamere, Steve,
and Tristan for three shriekers
After that they followed the stream north. Things got deep for a
while but eventually opened into a roughly 30'x40' cavern filled
with shallow water. Judging by the quantity of bones under the
water, this was probably the lair of the drink skinks. The party
searched the chamber and found 35 lb of corstal, a silver holy
symbol of Tymora, and a potion of some kind in decorative green
crystal vial worth 20gp.
Back in the harbor, Mrap-M'rap flies to the Star Chaser and tries
to get attention until the gargoyle follows him out of the harbor
to where two sailboats from the Sea Vault had sailed around the
island. They found it beached and estimated that about 20 dwarves
had headed inland in the rough direction of the mine. One dwarf
sailor had been left behind with the ships.
The gargoyle managed to ruin the boats by dropping large rocks
through the hull while Mrap-M'rap dropped small rocks on the
sailor, who ran off after the others. The gargoyle returned to
the Star Chase, but Mrap-M'rap continued following the sailor,
harassing him as much as possible. Occasionally Mrap-M'rap did
what he could to mark the trail they were taking.
Darius loans his belt dagger to Ag, who is on point. Ag also
casts Fly.
The party in the mine made their way back to the mushroom area and
then tried the nearest unexplored exit, to the East. This led to
a triangular chamber of which only one edge was a comfortable
height for humans and the opposite point dwindled to inches high.
There were 9 pink skinks here, which the party disposed of.
585xp to Ag, Brogan, Darius, Denyae, Dexter, Maanamere, Steve,
and Tristan for nine skinks
Beyond that was a second chamber, but the ceiling height became
too low to continue, so they returned to the mushrrom area and
explored an exit to the west, which started by going up a bit, but
then spiraled downwards, past an empty chamber with an empty side
chamber, and around until they were in a chamber 30' below the
level of the last area where they had fought skinks and almost under
it. Here they found 15 more skinks to play with.
975xp to Ag, Brogan, Darius, Denyae, Dexter, Maanamere, Steve,
and Tristan for 15 skinks
After that they explored the remainder of the local natural caves,
but only found a few empty chambers and dead ends.
Start of 2018-03-18 Game
(13:30am) Ag and Brogan go on DRG. Darius takes the belt dagger
back for now.
Back at the Star Chaser, Henkles and Staric are napping while they
can. Mrap-M'rap returned to the ship and did the same or not in
the crow's nest, who can tell?
The party wrapped up their search of the natural caves. With some
struggle and cajoling, the party eventually got Maanamere, then
everyone else, back up through the hole in the cavern ceiling and
set about exploring the remaining tunnels on the upper level.
First they stopped at the first junction room and collected all of
the tailings onto the throw rug. After that they continued NW
past the expanded stairway to the next junction room and collected
tailings there as well. They continued northwards and collected
tailings from the other junction rooms they had previously visited
with no incidents aside from a pair of passing cave crickets.
After that they returned to the junction room SW of the entrance
shaft and continued W along the one unexplored tunnel. This lead
vaguely W and occasionally N to another web-filled junction room.
The party antagonized the resident spiders and mayhem ensued.
Eventually the party killed all of the spiders, but Tristan was
poisoned during the battle and Slow Poison was cast on him.
5200xp to Darius, Denyae, Dexter, Maanamere, Steve, and Tristan
for a possibly extinct species of giant spider
After clearing the webs in this room, it was obviously a similar
junction room with exits to N and SW. Aside from the usual
tailings there were two large bottles of clear liquid. The party
uncorked one and determined that it had no scent. The tailings
from this room were added to the rest.
Both of the tunnels leaving this junction were apparently
exploratory tunnels, as they each had two sets of side tunnels and
then ended 150'-200' away from the junction room. The party
decided that it was a good time and place to rest up and restore
spells, so they used a wooden table to barricade the doorway
leading to the rest of the dungeon. Darius and Steve used Nap
spells and Dexter went to sleep. The others kept watch.
After an hour and a half, Steve is awakened by Mrap-Mrap hitting
the gargoyle back at the Star Chaser. Eventually Mrap-M'rap gets
the point across that there is an invisible intruder climbing the
side of the ship (Mrap-M'rap can see invisible). Steve-gargoyle,
Mrap-Mrap, and eventually the crew manage to repulse the invader
but are unable to capture them. Steve restarts his Nap.
Darius makes two attempts to cast Slow Poison on Tristan around
10pm, one of them succeeds. At 11pm, Dexter wakes up and casts
Neutralize Poison on Maanamere.
The door is opened and a centipede is squished. The party is
concerned about the possibility of hostile dwarves in the mine, so
Steve summons another gargoyle with an Aid from Tristan to
negate the damage. Invisibility is cast on the gargoyle.
The gargoyle is sent to explore the path to the surface. In the
junction room on the way to the exit shaft, it finds signs that
someone fought a band of kobolds there. In the exit shaft room,
there are more kobold bodies, these ones showing signs of having
fallen down the shaft. The gargoyle ascends the shaft and its
invisibility is dispelled as it gets to the top. The dwarves
waiting there fire weapons atit, at least one of which is a
crossbow with an enchanted bolt. The gargoyle returns quickly to
the bottom of the shaft.
The tailings are loaded into the fanny pack for safe keeping.
Maanamere is given the Belt Dagger and the following spell
effects:
Strength - for one point, no effect on Maanamere
Cat's Grace - +2points, +2 hit, -2 AC
Bless
The gargoyle gets the following spell effects:
Invisibility
Silence
Since the Throw Rug can't ascend far enough above the floor to
reach the top of the shaft, the party arrives at a complicated
solution to provide it with a "floor" to hover above to the top.
With the gargoyle flying above, Tristan and Steve, holding a table
above them for a shield, fly up, towing Denyae on a rope. Then
Darius and Maanamere follow on the Throw Rug, which is hovering
above a second table that is held aloft by Dexter, on his Ebony
Fly. In this fashion they proceed upwards.
Gargoyle
Table
Tristan Steve
Denyae on rope
Darius Maanamer on rug
Table
Dexter on Fly
The gargoyle reports that there are 8 dwarves, whom we will refer
to for convenience as Doc, Grumpy, Happy, Sleepy, Dopey, Bashful,
Sneezy and Moderf (the only spellcaster). Note that those are
not their real names. Moderf runs down the tunnel to get
out of range of the Silence and casts Dust Devil.
Steve summons a second gargoyle and the party gives it the Belt
Dagger. It heads up.
For reference, this is what the party can tell about the dwarves:
"Doc", female, Magic Brigandine Armor
Magic Club
Battle Axe
Heavy crossbow
Net
Dagger
Rod/Wand
"Grumpy", male, Magic Brigandine Armor
Magic Long sword
Battle axe
Heavy crossbow
Net
Dagger
"Happy", male, Magic Brigandine Armor
Magic Sabre
Magic Composite short bow & Magic Arrows
Magic Light crossbow
Battle axe
Net
"Sleepy", male, Brigandine Armor
Magic Long sword
Battle axe
Heavy crossbow
Net
"Dopey", female, Brigandine Armor
Magic Warhammer
Magic Rapier
Battle axe
Heavy crossbow
"Bashful", male, Magic Brigandine Armor
Battle Axe
Heavy crossbow
Net
Dagger
"Sneezy", female, Magic Brigandine Armor
Magic Club
Battle Axe
Heavy crossbow
Net
Dagger
Javelins
"Moderf", Female, Magic Studded Leather, Magic Shield
Long sword
Magic Hand crossbow with Magic Bolts
Net
Dagger
Club
The dwarves spot the approaching tables, but the second gargoyle
gets in an attack with the Belt Dagger, stunning 4. It takes some
crossbow hits after that. Then Steve, Tristan and Denyae arrive
and the upper table is cast aside as attacks are exchanged.
Tristan hits six dwarves with Slow.
Start of 2018-04-01 Game
The battle resumes and much chaos ensues. During the course of
the fight, Doc, then Grumpy and finally Sneezy are stunned with
the belt dagger and then thrown down the shaft. Happy, who spends
much of the battle clinging to the ladder, gets knocked off and
also falls. Sounds from below suggest that Doc survives and
possibly saves some of the others.
The party hastily loots the bodies of Sleepy, Dopey, Bashful and
the spellcaster (Moderf) yielding the following loot:
+1 Studded Leather Armor (Moderf)
+1 Shield (Moderf)
Hand crossbow, +1 (Moderf)
2 Potions (Moderf)
11 Hand Crossbow bolts, +2, +4 vs. sea dwellers (Moderf)
Scroll (Clerical) 2) Detect Charm (Moderf)
Scroll (Clerical) 3) Dispel Magic (Moderf)
Scroll (Clerical) 4) Animal Summoning I (Moderf)
1 500gp letter of credit, 7 10gp Hematites, 4 Toals (Moderf)
Long sword, +2 (Sleepy)
1 100gp Coral, 7 10gp Tiger Eye Agates (Sleepy)
Warhammer, +1 (Dopey)
Rapier, +1 (Dopey)
3 Heavy crossbow Bolts +2 (Dopey)
1mp, 4pp, 17sp (Dopey)
+1 Brigandine (Bashful)
3 Heavy crossbow Bolts +2 (Bashful)
3 100gp Ulvaens, 4 10gp Varscites (Bashful)
7815xp to Darius, Denyae, Dexter, Maanamere, Tristan, Steve
As they were looting the bodies, the party suddenly fell under a
Silence spell. As a second squad of dwarves started coming
up the shaft, the party fled the mine. Darius blocked the tunnel
with a Circle of Flame to cover their retreat.
The party emerged from the mine at 11:45pm and headed back to town
with some haste. On the way, they ran into a lone dwarf, dressed
as a sailor, with multiple scratches, as if from a cat, on his
face. He identified himself as "Lucky" and put up no resistance
when they took him into custody. He seemed like he had already
had a bad day somehow.
