Session 112 - His Unholiness' Secret Service - Campaign Day 1440-1441

His Unholiness' Secret Service

The Setup

We start with the culmination of several weeks of back channel, high-level events, most importantly the recent Hirkwood "agressions" by Team Nature™ (the rangers Mugwump and Aewdil and the druid Errol). The master of Burmstone, Kel von Heiligensten has access to cleric spells like divination because he'"won" the first PC to reach name level. So the intervening weeks the intelligence operations in Burmstone were elevated.

The massacre of several allied pigmen enclaves is just one major threat. Of particular interest to Kel is a cabal of vampires he smashed during a punitive expedition to Dubrak.

"... ladies and gentlemen, please make your children leave the room, what we have to tell you is shocking... we're getting word now that Kel has ordered a mass execution of every living being in Dubrak!"#MakeAdventuringGreatAgain #1e #ADnD #DubrakMassacre pic.twitter.com/LKDttx40b5

— Vomitron (@Vomitronz) October 18, 2023

Lately at least one of these creatures were detected in the ruins east of town. Kel has made it clear he wants to locate and destroy it. The players were offered several opportunities: Dwarftown swordsmen, the many ruins only briefly explored, and then a bounty posted in town.

 

Campaign Day 1440 - Kermele, the head of Internal Security in Burmstone on behalf of his Unholiness Kel von Heiliegstein, offers a substantial reward for a very particular mission in the depth of the ruins outside of town. Inquire within! #MakeAdventuringGreatAgain #1e #ADnD pic.twitter.com/uxz1x2QBrB

— Vomitron (@Vomitronz) June 27, 2024

Karmele is a well known henchman of Kel, now positioned to command security services for the domain. She presented a few flasks filled with what appeared to be blood. The players inquired and were given the following information:

 

1. These contain blood, yes, very special blood. You will enter the ruins of Gorem Keyxalim and reconnoiter the location of a vampire, a dire agent of chaos, marking the halls near its lair with the blood in these containers.
2. [5:30 PM]

   "If you find the hallways in question they have to mark walls nearby with a bloody hand print, a smeared bloody hand print and another one with blood splatters. There has to be a notable distances between all 3. Doing so and providing a map with the layout of the prints will be rewarded with 500 gp. An additional 500 will be rewarded if it turns out the place was marked correctly and another 500 if this job results in the destruction of the vampire. If you somehow manage to kill the vampire themselves they will be rewarded with 5000 gp instead.

So the mission was - locate the lair, smear this blood in a specific pattern, get back OR destroy the vampire and cash in big.

The notion that a monster of Chaos and Evil was enough to attract the attention of Reynaud, a magic-user, and his 2 Lawful Good henchmen, Emmi the monk, and Brona the Mercillian Paladin. The player was not sure if the paladin would be able to work for Kel. In this case, if the mission was not part of an ongoing arrangement it was tolerable - as long as the primary mission remained the destruction of the vampire.

Unfortunately the first hour of game time was spent on player preparation like PC generation for a new player, and then some catch up math for others. This eventually came to bite the expedition in the nethers, as we will see.

The Delve Begins

By the time the party was ready, the rangers Mugwump and Aewdil arrived in town to join in. Gerolt and the Nighthawks marched out, with the halfling fighter/thief Annelie, Reynaud, and several henchmen. The plan was the Nighthawk mercenaries to secure the upper works courtyard and conduct repair operations on several of the interior doors. They would guard the entry point, awaiting Gerolt's return from below.

Of course, Gerolt's player is a careful mapper, so the volume of ready maps was consulted first.

Gerolt laid out an operation plan. Gerolt then ordered Franz, the illusionist henchman, to cast invisibility on Charles, the thief henchman. There was some debate about if there should be an advanced scout group (the rangers) or Charles, but the rangers were now freshly levelled up, full of brand new hit points and improved combat capabilities. The group decided to let the rangers keep out front by 90', occasionally doubling back to report on conditions and allow for course corrections.

Reynaud also had 2 linkboys hired, and then passed out several new gadgets he had created in the previous 11 days. These are dowels with continual light cast upon them. Each dowel also had a leather cowl with fasteners, so the light could be adjusted or completely blocked off as needed. Normally I would curse about this obvious BS but then I realized this is the sort of unexpected thinking that separates us from the lower beasts. It's a clever idea and eliminates an annoying limitation on lower levelled expeditions (light).

The first few areas were still empty, and the group was moving at x5 movement rates due to their maps and familiarity. However the first set of stairs led to a chamber that held something unexpected.

Aewdil and Mugwump were without any light. Aewdil did have infravision and I described how the room appeared to have almost a dozen dinner plate sized bugs crawling around on the floors, the ceiling, and the walls. They have 3 segments of surprise. They retreat (evade) and explain what they saw. Gerolt understood that this is a new threat, as previously this room had been empty. The group prepares firebombs to throw, and for some reason, bring Franz the illusionist down to help throw them behind Mugwump.

The rangers get surprise (again!) worth a whole segment and the group hurls their bombs in. This kills a couple of the spiders which the party can now see due to a lantern being unblocked and then the bursts of fire from the lit oil flasks. Now we shift to the rest of the combat.

The players elect to prepare color spray, and then strike blows on any of the beasts that remain. The spiders are leaping and scuttling towards Mugwump and Gerolt, but the spell completes and several spiders are unconscious. However, almost a half dozen are still angry as hell and now are leaping amongst the group. Things get tense when both Gerolt and Mugwump are bitten, then are forced to make saves vs poison (although at a +2). Failure means death! Everyone does save and a couple more of these terrors are smashed. The next round Franz decides to back up the stairs and leave the fighting to the fighters. However, one of the biggest spiders attacks him, but misses, it's on his robes hissing and biting, while Franz is now scrambling up the stairs to the rest of the party.

Franz is screaming "KILL IT! KILL IT! IT'S ON ME!"

It takes another round and several more combatants to kill the spider clinging to Franz's clothes. I think Franz even survived a bite and the poison. The players marvel at the damage this thing took. It was the biggest and meanest one of the whole group.

The fight is over. The halfling decides the time is right to clean up the webs, and starts doing that.

Gerolt pulls back an old tapestry that was hanging behind a thick wall of webs, and find the backside is laden with fist sized spider egg sacks. The group spends a few minutes dousing this with oil and then ignites it while Aewdil scans the walls for secrets.

Following Gerolt's map, the scouts pass through the next room where previously the multi-armed ethereal monster ambushed them several times. No monster here. They proceed to open the door at the end of a connecting passage, hoping to find the rest of the way to the stairs down clear. What they do find is another horror.

At the opposite wall is a gaping hole, as if something has burrowed through the rock and stone. There are 2 10-12' long wormish insectoid monsters devouring something. There is a lot of blood and other ick. The rangers AGAIN have surprise and elect to close the door and report back. After a brief  discussion the plan is to open the door and pour missile fire into those things.

The door is opened but the creatures have burrowed down into the floor. Only the tail of one of them is seen wiggling in the newly dug hole. Flaming oil is thrown into the hole and the party hears a shriek of pain.

Finally the group makes it to the stairs leading down into the next level, a system of natural caves.

It's No Better Down Here, Pal

The group hopes to find another way to go even further down, speculating that the vampire's lair will be deeper still. This means they will have to locate as yet unknown means of going deeper, like stairs down. So far, even in previous attempts, they have no found this. Maybe today they will get lucky?

No - as it turns out there are 3 dark forms waiting for them in the first chamber. Due to the paladin's protection from evil aura they do not come closer. They taunt the group with laughter and threats. Missile fire, even with silver, proves ineffective. Aewdil turns them, and the forms flee.

Aewdil decides to try and swim across a pool of water to reach the opposite side through a connecting tunnel, but is attacked by some aquatic "tendrils" that try to bash her. She fends off this attack and the group hurls a rope to her, pulling her back rapidly to the shore.

Next, they head south through to another lager cave, where they are looking for a "garbage chute" from above. While they do find the landmark, they are also aware that the dark forms are back, again speaking of what they will do when the paladin is no longer around. Mugwump gets a person protection from evil from Reynaud's familiar (a brownie) and gives chase. He manages to damage one with a magic weapon but they flee across the dark pool of water.

The group finds another mapped room further south, and have to choose between a smaller tunnel that winds to the southwest or one that goes east. They pick east, and find a door. The thieves try to discern if the door is trapped and seemed to find nothing. The door is forced open. There is a swarm of giants rats busy eating some bloated corpse. The group again elects to use firebombs as well as pouring oil in front of the door and lighting it. This time they are very effective and scores of rats are burnt up. Aewdil recognizes the corpse's race, noting it was but a single, empty eye socket. She has dealt with these cyclopian beastmen before.

By this point we've reached the end of the time available to most of the people playing. The group elects to retreat now, with literally 10 minutes of time remaining. If there is an encounter, it means they will have to entrust their PCs to someone else, or worse cast, I promise then they'll all die down here. But Gerolt has maps so good he merely has to inform me what route they will take, complete with tidbits like "when we reach the room with the pillars and the hole in the ceiling, we continue south to the intersection and turn right...". 

Again the group is moving at x5 movement speed due to these maps. I only get 1 more encounter roll and I come up empty. Players 1, dungeon 0.

About that invisibility

This game has psionics. That also means I, as the DM, use the psionic encounters listed in the DMG. If you've never seen this section, go read it. Basically, any use of psionics or spells and powers that mimic psionic effects may trigger an encounter with Something From Beyond. 

Did you catch that? "Spells Resembling Psionic Powers" - things like know alignment and invisibility! This certainly puts it on the players to be very careful when leaning on these powers.

You know how GURPS use to have callouts to Things Man Was Not Mean To Know? Well AD&D as decent odds that psions will eventually be devoured by a demon prince that has come to rip off your skull and slurp your brain out like a Frappuccino. 

Check out the list of suggested entities that may come to investigate the juicy, chess club sized psionic brains:

Every time I checked for a wandering monster, I was also rolling a d4. Sadly, it never came up. But it will, eventually.

A Poor Showing Indeed

So the players got almost nothing. Sure they racked up nearly 2000XP for defeating monsters but that was divided eleven ways once the henchmen were included. And no treasure was taken back.

That's not entirely true, however. You see, Annelie the halfling fighter/thief did find a small bounty of coins when she was clearing the webs in the spider room. As such, she elected to keep this to herself, and gained some sweet XP on the side as well as a SUPERIOR PC grade. Not bad for the first game in Make Adventuring Great Again.