Apex Session 5: The Tower (a mini-dungeon crawl)

See my session prep here for images and background.

Session 5 started with our heroes getting to the tower. Using his sprinter's boots, Archie managed to leap over the 20' or so of possibly rotten bridge with a rope. Using that. the others managed to cross with only a foot or too finding some rotten spots on the wooden bridge, but no one fell to the 150' chasm below them.

After getting everyone in the entrance room, they started to explore the tower. Archie heard noises from the stairwell and a brief trip down the stairs revealed riding gear and what did appear to be stables, though with human-sized doors on the inside that matched the much larger outside doors they noticed when approaching the tower.

I did my share screen thing and just had the maps displayed: there was nothing really "hidden" and it was easier for everyone I think to have an idea of the actual space. I did use various descriptions as worked up in my notes (and when we're done with this I'll post a link to the semi-organized PDF in case anyone wants to use it):

The Tower

Located at the edge of the badlands surrounding the temple, the tower sits in a ravine, a long bridge connecting it to the badlands. The ravine is where the river flows out and down to the Atlantic. The tower is ancient and the bridge somewhat treacherous. A relatively easy 2+ action check to cross.

Entry room

Inside the characters are at the ground level. A 20x30 foot room, light only by the setting sun streaming through the door, shows a room with scratchmarks on the floor made, and a broken double door at the far wall and a smaller door on the right wall. In the far corner is what looks like a pile of rags. This is the skeletal remains of an ancient guardian; there is a bronze sword with Minoan script down the blade reading To Guard The Worlds There is a painting of what appears to be pterodon riders on the left wall, what was once a magnificent mural but is now faded. Sounds can be heard from the broken double doors ahead.

Staircase room (2)

A 20’ square room with a spiral staircase in the middle. From below you can hear something, or several somethings, stirring about. There is nothing blocking the stairs in either direction. It is dark below as well as above.

First room the right (3)

This triangular room is about 20x20. Rotting desks are against 2 walls. One desk holds a leather-bound volume, written in Minoan. Inside are maps that no one recognizes. There is a map that looks like the area around the temple and what appears to be a door or gateway down a chasm. 6+ action roll with wisdom and class bonuses to apply.

There is also another book, oddly enough in what appears to be ancient Hebrew, with the pentacles of King Solomon described. One, the Fifth Pentacle of Mercury, when the page is opened one of the characters who have not yet noticed a coin, will feel a warmth in a pocket and upon searching, will find it. The other coins will also glow, and each character will get one of the remaining coins (as they seemed to have entirely forgotten about them).

So I finally got the coins for all the users in place, though I may scatter more coins around after reading some of the "spells" and things they have. I also generated a couple more maps, one fairly mundane, the other unknown and strange. They did pick up that it well may be a map of other worlds or realities. The mundane map does show a hole in the chasm they need to cross along with a crystal marker. 

It ended up basically a dungeon crawl mostly: I had encounter tables for the barracks rooms, and they managed to defeat 3 skeletons and pick up 3 crystal power stones that seemed to charge the 3 (or was it four?) crystal swords that they picked up. I did not go over the mechanics but will here, as per my notes:

Crystal Weapons. These are crystal powered weapons. In general, they are a d8 usage die. To recharge you need to find a power crystal and let the weapon stay in contact for 5x1d10 combat turns. They are also, when charged, considerably more dangerous than expected: they ignore armor.

I sort of ignored that recharging info during game play (note to self: read the actual established notes!)

And the tower exploration took most of the game night. I do need to bring in some NPCs soon to have a bit more interaction. I may bring back Jungle Girl, who I did finally work up:

Though I do think perhaps in the morning there well could be a pteradactyl attack as they leave what is now a nesting ground for these flyers.