After barely surviving the great trap revival, our heroes start back where they came from. A glimmering light around the corner spooked them, and our werewolf was sent forward to investigate. Finding their guide had come down to see if everything was okay, the went back to the ladder, and took the dragon egg up so as to not be encumbered by that. I also added the NPC as I was concerned that the temple adventure was going to be harder on them than I thought. And it did turn out to be more difficult....
Following the curving hallway, they got to the front room and found the statue of the abada. The abada is a shy herbivore of Central Africa, and its horns are purported to be the antidote of all poisons. A bit of prodding and the adventurers do find two vials of universal antidote in the horns. The Runt is the only one small enough to squeeze through the remains of the front door and into an adjoining room that was once a library of sorts. He found the decayed and ruined remains of scrolls, and one still intact scroll written in a strange language that appeared quite uniform and linear (I was thinking a computer printout I think when I stuck that in there, no idea where I was going). He stashed the scroll in his potato sack clothing and returned to the group.
Just around the corner was a dead snake in front of a door, the blood still fresh. Our Goblin mage, still hungry, pops out and eats the eyeballs. And, the player, being a father with 2 sons playing, decided fart jokes were quite applicable as the Goblin's digestive track is apparently quite, err, noisy. I did not make the others roll against nausea. The room inside looked to be the dining room: long tables, stone utensils and glazed pottery everywhere with images of the abada. They heard some noise in the next room, and on searching found two of the missing people: a young girl, Wendy, and her older sister Yvonne. Yvonne was holding a bloody rapier, snake blood still dripping, as she guarded her younger sister. Nova stepped forward and calmed them down. Through sobs they found that the other two had been separated at the snake attack, and the boys had gone north. A quick check of the remaining room showed casks, most broken and dried out. Those that remained only held what could be be described as vinegar or worse. That did not stop the Goblin from taking a swig.
Heading north, they encounter a trap that the scholarly werewolf actually found. Crut disarmed the trap, and as they were about to enter the next chamber, they saw the 4 giant scorpions! And of course, the scorpions saw our adventurers as well. With a roll of the die, the lead scorpion attacks Crut. Even with his blur ring on, I rolled really well and the giant beast managed to grab ahold of our rogue, and with another good roll, the other claw as well. Though Crut had lost his enchanted dagger, he was still wearing ensorcelled armor. As the scorpion does 1d6 damage, and his armor takes 6 points of damage, unless I roll double (4) or triple (3) damage on 3d6, Crut is safe. And because of these 2 hex creatures, blocking the others from getting attacked. Agaric turns into a werewolf and their trusty NPC guide, with her 16 adjusted dexterity, gets to shoot twice per combat round. Crut and his foe were blocking the door, so it was a matter of slow attrition as arrows slowly took the life of one of the 4, and bit by bit Agaric and Crut managed to beat the scorpion down. Eventually Runt also attacked, having a 2 hex range with his staff. In the midst of this almost slow motion battle, a fighter came out of the back room and attacked a scorpion. The defender of the boy, he was wielding a sword and leather armor. His attacks did not go unnoticed, and the next turn that scorpion turned around to attack. Just like Crut, he was grabbed (which makes his attacks at a -4 DX to hit) but his armor protected him from most, but sadly not all, of the damage. During the melee, Crut, Agaric & the Runt managed to kill the scorpion holding Crut (I never rolled a critical in those attacks), but the guard was killed as I did roll a critical for that attack! The adventurers see the unknown soldier crumple in a giant scorpion's claws and start to get devoured. Our guide (whose name I keep forgetting!) continued to shoot arrows; while none missed, several just glanced off the mighty creatures hard carapace! But eventually she too managed to kill one of the beasts. Leaving just the two, one busy devouring our dead guardian, and the other moving in to join the feast. The crew though made quick work of the remaining scorpions as they could surround the beasts better now.
Nova, Wendy and Yvonne rush to Billy (and yeah, I should have prepared a bit more with actual NPC names. I have so many resources for names that there is no excuse!) Seeing as he was poisoned by the sting of a scorpion tail, our master physicker works her healing and the universal antidote to bring poor Billy almost back to his normal self. Just frightened and sad to have lost their guardian.
They retrace their steps, careful to avoid the traps, and get the children out of the temple and into the waiting arms of the lamia. Deciding that they had not yet explored the room to the south of where they came in, they go back down and explore the dorm room. And then they are attacked by yet another giant scorpion! Rushing in, Agaric decides to fight as a human: that -3DX meant as a werewolf he rarely actually hit anything! Crut also runs up, secure in his enchanted armor and a helm they found that grants him yet another -1DX for attackers. Rolling for who gets attacked, it was Agaric who is grabbed by the giant scorpion, a larger cousin to the ones they had already killed. Somehow I managed to roll a critical hit, doubling damage, and bringing Agaric down to a single hit point! Crut was swinging his dagger which was slowly causing damage, and the guide was again shooting arrows. While the arrow-filled beast ignored the others and was still trying to kill Agaric, Runt and Nova moved up to be behind the scorpion to get a better attack angle. Agaric, knowing that his werewolf form heals a point every other turn, starts turning into a werewolf. Sadly, he gets killed the next turn, and that same turn the others finally manage to kill the scorpion. Using the zombie ring from the trap room, the Runt now has a werewolf zombie!
So, we managed to kill off another player character. And it was the same player. I'll be breaking out the official cause of death stamps, and I'm painting up a zombie wolf which can suffice as the zombie werewolf.
As they have the rule book, and I gave 250 XP for this adventure, they are busy updating their character sheets, and in 1 case, making a new one. Going to let him make a 34 point character just so he is close to being on par with the other players.
But as a recap: the Lamia will give them their pouch of 50 gold for the children's rescue. They have a couple of maps and scrolls, and that last chest I should not have made it a detect roll. So will give them what they found under the hidden bottom:
The other chest is empty, though a 5D INT roll (and 3D with trap detection) will note a false bottom in the chest. Below the false bottom is a map of the Phantom Isles. The characters may have heard rumors of these isles, near a city where it always rains.
The Phantom Isles is were I am placing the Rainy City, a city where it always rains. Another Kickstarter that has had a couple of supplements since the first supplement. They may never visit there, but I am throwing out things that I have just in case. World building or random stuff, you be the judge!
And here is the link to the not exactly complete PDF as I was re-arranging things. If there is a demand I can finish it up and maybe organize it better. One of these days I may try to do a zine Kickstarter with some friends. One being a talented artist so that would be pretty cool.
And the background of the temple, which the Lamia will tell our adventurers (except for the adventure part):
This temple was once at the edge of the mountains centuries ago, and was starting point for travelers heading north through the desert. A temple dedicated to Tona, Goddess of the Lesser Cretures, and often linked with healing. Centuries ago, there was a fight with Mim the God of Rains, who felt that his Dwarves were not shown the proper respect. In fact, the Dwarves were trying to steal the Chalice of Mintrailia, which flows with perfect mead once a day. Upon discovering the theft, the priestesses sent an abada to retrieve the chalice, but he was killed by the Dwarves. In retribution Tona had the Dwarves eaten by a myriad of centipedes and had the chalice returned. Mim in his anger, moved the temple dozens of miles into the desert, hours from the northern route, and buried the temple in the sands. The battle raged on, and this marked also the end of the city of Tuvano, for the Wizard King Kalinore’s wife was bit and cursed by a poisoned millipede. Seeing the damage she and Mim caused, they ceased their battle. The temple has not been heard of in centuries since, and Tuvano has since fallen to dust (see The Fantasy Trip Adventures, the Tomb of the Wizard-King).
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