The Ever Expanding Dungeon : Session 27

Just as a reminder, there are 3 PCs in the dungeon right now:

Sister Linkat C:4
Sylana C:2
Gutzom the Dwarf D:2

***
“That was odd” said Sister Linkat.

Her companions gave her blank stares in reply.

“I could swear 6 months passed by while we stood here.”

“Sister Linkat, the evil of this place must be getting to you. No such thing has occurred. My beard hasn’t grown an inch, see?” said the dwarf, stroking his beard, almost with a hint of disappointment.

Shrugging it off as yet another disturbing occurrence in this foul place, Sister Linkat took her place next to Gutzom as he forced open the door to the south.

At the intersection, Sister Linkat briefly recounted the death of Perceval as the party stopped a moment to decide which door to examine first.

[Is there anything obviously distinguishing about either door?C: 6 50/50, 21, yes. There appears to be a foot print headed towards the door to the south, but the door West looks as if it has been undisturbed for ages.

The party opts to listen at each door - Southern door first:

Sister Linkat and Gutzom listen while Sylana keeps an eye on their back? 5 and 6 neither hear anything

They try the West door - 2 and 4, again nothing.

Does anyone recognize the print? Chaos: 6, Unlikely. 24, yes. 1-2 Linkat 3-4 Sylana 5-6 Gutzom -

4, Sylana recognizes it.]

Sylana stooped and identified the track as that of a ghoul. So sure of it was she, that Sister Linkat, ever cautious, suggested they try the West door first. Of course, Sylana prefered to fight the undead; she didn't take up the mantle of the Hedonistic Lumberjack to skirt combat. Debate ensued.

Meanwhile, as the two clerics went round and round the issue, Gutzom again stroked his beard thinking if he squinted just right, it was indeed a touch longer than he recalled.

[Wandering monster, 5, none.

Here I used my group decision making mechanism. THe question to be decided is Does the party go to the West door?

First, I decided the strength of the PC's conviction towards their point, and then added that to their Charisma.

Sister Linkat 12+very unlikely (+2) = 14
Sylana - 11 + very likely (+2) = 13

The difference is added or subtracted from a 50/50 roll on the Mythic Fate Chart. Since lower values are Yes on the Mythic Fate Chart, it's -1 on roll to favor Sister Linkat.

44 -1 = 43, they’ll go Sister Linkat’s way. ]

Gutzom forced open the door, which thankfully wasn't trapped, to reveal a tiny 10' x 10' chamber. A great flapping of wings startled the party as two giant bats, themselves surprised, awkwardly flew to the ceiling.

[Check reaction for bats. Friendly. I decide that means they just ignore the PCs]

The bats appeared uninterested in the party and after laughing off their surprise, Sylana and Gutzom observed that the glowing orbs in this room were somewhat dimmer than usual.

A quick survey of the room revealed some carvings in the stone wall, initials and simple pictographs.

[Is this anything anyone can understand? Chaos: 5, Unlikely: 16, Yes.
Roll Rory's cubes: Drop ball, mask, monkey - r- roll drop ball and get crying]

Sister Linkat squinted at the crude marks and informed the others that they told the tale of a hero donning an expressionless mask to climb down into the pits of the underworld to find his lost love.

With the bats ignoring them, the party opted to go through the southern door.

[Using my Traps for Doors and Chests tables, I found that door was stuck,but not trapped.
It opened into a 50 x 10’ room with 3 exits
Contents: Empty
Purpose: fungus/mold garden

I decided to use Mythic to setup the Scene:

All along the floor and up the walls and even on the ceiling a vast forest of fungus and moss grows, the walls long having collapses to reveal the earth behind them, and trickles of water coming in through the ceiling.

Check vs Chaos level, 1, scene is altered]

Beyond the door, the remnants of a vast garden of fungus and moss clung to life - something or someone had tried to smash and hack everything in sight; shattered mushroom caps and stalks littered the floor and scorched walls revealed an attempt to eradicate the garden completely.

“Best be careful - either someone was a violent maniac or something in this garden attacked them” said Gutzom. Trusting the dwarf’s knowledge of underground things generally, neither Sylana nor Sister Linkat felt compelled to do more than listen at the various doors.

[The doors East and South revealed nothing, but the West door gave away its secrets:

Listening at the West door, Sister Linkat heard a low growling and gurgling.

For some reason, unknown to me, I decided this qualified as setting up a scene, and so I checked against Chaos of 5, and rolled a 4: Interupt Scene]

As Sister Linkat moved to place her ear on the door the door, it burst open and [Here i went to the Wandering Monster tables and rolled: ghoul. !@#@#!!@#] four grey-skinned man-sized creatures with faintly glowing eyes of red, and hideous teeth of yellow and black rot snarled at her.

With surprise in their favor, the ghouls attacked the stunned cleric and dropped her where she stood - paralyzed, but not yet dead, her eyes full of hate for the undead and fear of her possible fate.

[Second round, the ghouls won initiative 4 to 2 and moved into the room to attack]

The ghouls must have recognized the air of holiness surrounding Sylana, Adept of the Hedonistic Lumberjack, and three of them attacked her, while only one bothered with the dwarf.

Like Sister Linkat, Sylana dropped to the ground, heart beating, blood racing, but completely unable to say or do anything.

Gutzom, at first, thought he might be able to drive the ghouls away - although no elf, he was fairly resistant to their paralyzing attack. Despite wounding one, he otherwise made no head-way, while he continued to suffer wound after wound. [This refers to round 2]

[Round 3, Gutzom won and I decided he'd fall back defensively out the door in the North wall through which the party had entered]

Gutzom was loathe to abandon his comrades to a horrible fate, but he could see his situation was untenable He had one hope, to fall back through the doorway and use its width to limit their ability to attack him.

He fell back and braced for their onslaught.

On they came, a ravenous pack of hideousness. The dwarf swung away fighting for his life, fighting against evil, fighting for his comrades.

But, Gutzom's luck ran out - the ghouls dropped him to the ground, paralyzed, blood streaming into his eyes and out of his nose, matting his hair and beard, a curse frozen upon his lips.

***************

TPK.

That was unexpected and completely angering.

After swearing up a storm, I calmed down and decided that I will roll up another character, and recruit a few more from those people left on the post where I put out a call for characters. 

So, session 28 will begin in the village with a new party set to head into the dungeon. Somehow they will come into possession of the map, of that I am sure. Perhaps someone, or some thing, wants adventurers to test their mettle in the dungeon, and the map is simply bait for the trap.