The Fantasy Trip - Side Adventure Concludes

Having had their companion Hans (may he rest in peace) get skewered by a large bronze mechanical creature, the group rests up and does what any good dungeon party does: split up Han's money, the ring, gun powder and the rifle that no one else can shoot. Having finished the first floor, the only place left to visit is down that shaft they passed by earlier.

With Granite the Gargoyle taking the lead, they creep down that passage, musty air blowing up at them. At the last corner, one of the digger mechanisms charges up and attacks Granite! He took a point of damage despite his thick skin, then they both missed the next round. With Granite blocking the corridor there was nothing anyone else could do. Fortunately, the middle-sized creatures are not particularly hard to beat and eventually there is a pile of gears on the floor. Getting to the bottom, they have their choice of directions and go left. Another chamber, but this time empty of the creatures, but not empty of a giant constrictor snake! Crut gets attacked and takes on a bit of damage, but fortunately this is a non-venomous snake. Granite flies over and they kill the snake, and Nova does a bit of first aid. 1 point of damage can be cured without breaking out the physickers kit. Although Crut's attitude and apparent lack of being thankful may have some long-term consequences, but rogues are rogues and don't often think of others (and now that I am thinking of it that way, it may have well been in character, so maybe some extra XP). They find a nice hand axe and a ring along with a few silvers. Going back, the Runt Gubbler walks underneath a huge spider web the others need to duck under, when a giant spider lands next to Nova and attacks! This one is a venomous spider but manages to miss, and Crut, attacking from the rear, manages to kill it is a single, well-placed blow. The Runt still whacked it with his staff, even though it was dead. The next area held a couple more digger mechanisms, and after a fairly brief fight, the group manages to kill them. There was a +1 DX sword here, and Granite adds that to his swords. He is the only one currently strong enough to wield that sword at the moment.

They actually hit the boss monster chamber last, not sure how that happened. There, a 7 hex machine is busy pulverizing the cave ceiling and walls, feeding itself with four massive work arms. And, guarding the mechanoid monster, another of the two handed creatures that killed Hans, flanked by two of the medium sized ones. Carefully keeping out of the way of Runt's line of fire, our group attacks the trio of mechanical menaces! The Run lets loose with a 10 strength lightening bolt, using mana from his staff. A blinding explosion and there is not even a pile of the cogs and gears but a molten mass of metal. Fear can drive a Goblin to some interesting feats! The two diggers are taken care of fairly easily, leaving the huge thing in the middle.

With four huge arms grabbing at the rocks and dirt and feeding itself, the group knows they need to destroy, just not how. They attack from two sides. The Runt throws a 2 strength lightening bolt, but misses. And fortunately missed Nova, who felt her hair get all frizzed out from the near miss of a magical lightening bolt. It takes a few rounds but eventually they do manage to break the thing down, although at this point more are coming down the entranceway! While fighting those two new machines, a hidden door opens up out of the side of the big machine, and a small one starts to scuttle for a hole in the wall. Surprising me, Nova actually runs over and engages the machine, and do the other adventurers. A fight of course occurs, but the small machine is trying to escape, not fight. They kill it, and see that it is carrying a small box. Opening it up reveals little gears and cogs whirling about. Trying to leave, several more machines block their way, but rather than fighting they seem to be trying to get to that box. Eventually they are all defeated and the group gets back to the village.

Now, several things during this session. Both Granite and Crut took a bit of damage, and Nova managed to heal a good chunk of that, along with the found healing potions. The players realized that they too could get killed, just like Hans. And for Crut, it was a close thing twice. I believe he forgot his blur ring again, although I am not sure it would have worked on these things.

This was a pre-written adventure that had the megahexes and counters for play, so that was really a good thing and now I am glad I also went all in on that one, although I could just print them from the PDF, they are nice counters. They also managed to get the Artificiers seed rather than it getting away. Several things here as the players have no idea what they have. First, if there are any remaining diggers from that first one, they may be pursued and that box taken from them. If they can get it to a city, someone in the artificier's guild would recognize it as a self-assembling device and pay a lot of god for it.

Some of the players were getting a bit antsy: not sure if this was a food thing or if they are getting bored with the game. The father is still having a good time and I think they are as well, but we need to figure a way to keep them all involved. I don't want to dumb down the game or just give out rewards, so we'll have to figure something out. But I think they are having a good time.

I did give out 200 XP for this and last session: this was a lot tougher than they were used to. It is not enough to bump anyone up as they are in the 35 point range now I think, but another couple of side trips and they should be able to bump a stat up or gain a new skill.

Final note: the one whose character died last session was sick, so did not make it to the game today. If he can get to the backstory we'll see about working that in. He will be in pursuit of that ring. And for a prop, I am using that ring from the Soloman's coin collection. Not sure of the props are helping or just causing a distraction.