The Ever Expanding Dungeon: Session 11

When we last left our heroes, the sheriff had approached them for assistance in dealing with an evil wizard who had targeted the village with extortion and threats of annihilation.

I decided this adventure would be another using JF's 9Qs available from SoloNexus, and the setup proposed at the end of session 10 would take the place of Q1. Be the GM First. Play would start this session with Q1. Be the Player Next.

The party grilled the sheriff and learned the town can't afford the payments demanded and frankly they had no plan, hence the need for the PCs to intervene. The sheriff pointedly observed that the village had hoped the dungeon would bring a boom of adventuring types eager to spend their coin, but they have been slow in coming.

"And well, to be frank, those that have come have joined your group and either died or are standing right here."

The truth does hurt sometimes.

[At this point I figured I'd poll the party to see if anyone wanted to veto this adventure and instead return to the dungeon - but surveying their motivations showed me that clearly, they would accept it. Both Sister Linkat and Perceval because they want to protect the villagers, and for Feldspar and Gelfat, it promised adventure. So, no check was needed.

However, I wasn't going to assume they'd all support the same approach.

I decided to think about it from each PCs point of view and imagine each one making their points, typing it out as I went. The result of the imaginary dialog was that no dice roll was needed.]

After much back and forth, the party decided they would attempt to mount a surprise attack (aka assassination) on the wizard.

The sheriff, who had been standing by awaiting the party's decision asked the obvious "Why not best the beast he threatens us with?"

"Even if we fight it as a group, which is in violation of the challenge, we could very well lose to this unknown creature, and if we fight fairly, it’s likely neither it nor the wizard will," explained Feldspar.

Satisfied, the sheriff left the party to their planning.

Unfortunately for the party, Feldspar could no longer afford the mysterious Trulhammar Gax, and when offered the same sum by Perceval, he declined the offer. Before the day was out, they would acquire a mule to carry their armor the majority of the trip to the wizard's tower.

As usual, they would leave at first light.

[Overnight Sister Linkat recovered from her wounds. Q2 starts here]

Or that was the plan at least, but as they finished loading the last of their gear, they heard a scream coming from direction of the village square.

As they approached, 100s, then 1000s, of small spiders spilled out of the central fountain and poured down the streets. It was as if each drop of water had been replaced by a tiny arachnid, until finally a fearsome and angry giant black widow climbed out.

The party, of course, was unarmored, all of it had been strapped to the mule.

"Everyone, grab your shields and oil! l And light torches! I'll try to occupy it in the meantime!" hollered Feldspar as he knocked an arrow.

The ensuing combat was chaotic and left the streets filled with billowing smoke from the burning oil. The foul creature was finally slain when Gelfat charged in after the spider misjudged the distance to Sister Linkat and crashed to the ground stunned 

[i rolled a 1 for the black widow's attack and then checked the table I use for fumbles]

With the final sword stroke, all of the little spiders turned back into water, leaving the dirt and stone streets a puddle-ridden mess.

[q3]

As the party stood about congratulating themselves, the black widow's body began to crack and flake into the sky like bits of burning paper until nothing remained of it. High above the village, the swirling black flakes transformed into a flock of ravens flying directly towards the wizard’s tower.

Realizing that they had just lost their chance of surprise, the party headed off as fast as they could.

[q4]

The party tied up the mule, donned their armor, and then cautiously approached the rocky crag upon which stood the wizard's tower. Creeping along the rocky surface, they sought a cave that might lead them into the tower.

Once again, the hand of fate provided. [the Fate Chart to be precise]

A long twisting passage led them to a large,slightly open, metal door.

Inside, the party found themselves in a large circular chamber lit with torches all around. In the middle, approximately 6’ tall and 12’ long, stood a giant brass, copper and silver statue of a beetle. Or what they had hoped was a statue.

With a frightening clicking sound, it jerkily sprang into motion and advanced on them.

[ I made this up on the spot: Clockwork Beetle(AC 3, HD 3, MV 20’, ATT mandibles or special, mandible 1d8, 1 on 1d6 shoots a jet of flame for 1d8, save vs. dragon breath to take 1/2 damage, range of 50’, F:3, Morale: 12) ]

The party split up into twos to find a staircase up, with each pair taking a door on the perimeter of the room.

It took opening all three doors before the party found the steps, and not before Sister Linkat and Feldspar were both severely wounded by the mechanized beetle. In the safety of the stairwell, Sister Linkat cast her Cure Light Wounds on herself. [and recovered a staggering 2 points. things were looking grim]

[q5]

The party followed the steps up into another open chamber, somewhat smaller than the previous.

On a large dais were two 7' tall glowing crystals, with arcs of electricity jumping from one to the other in a web of sparking light. There, in the gaps between the sparks, small bursts of blackness, like tears in the structure of the universe, appeared, accompanied by strange howling, screams of torment, growls and snarls which erupted from the darkness, then silenced a moment later when the tear closed.

Sister Linkat noticed that several symbols on the bases of the crystals belonged to evil gods and demons. Gelfat recognized many of the sigils on the walls as being magical though he himself couldn't read them, as his current memorized spell was charm person

Still, the purpose was easy to discern: the wizard was trying to bring or had already brought something over from another plane.

Sister Linkat suggested they topple the crystals, which was met with unanimous assent.

As the first crystal fell and shattered, the sparks and tears in the fabric of space and time ceased, the sigils glowed with a sudden intensity then disappeared from the wall, and the whole tower began to shake, loosened stones began to fall, and the steps they had just taken came crashing down. 

[stay tuned for the exciting conclusion aka Session 12 of The Ever Expanding Dungeon]

The Ever Expanding Dungeon + 9Qs: The Conclusion

On their way back to down, fueled by rage at their loss, Perceval proposed an all out assault into the dungeon entrance they discovered. All in agreement, they intended to hire some of the locals to come along to act as lookouts and runners in case of another ambush, using Malazar's gold to overcome objections.

Only one local was willing however, the mysterious Trulhammar Gax. In exchange for chain mail, shield, long sword and 50 gp upon his return, he would join the party.

As luck (or Mythic, either way) would have it, a new face was in the tavern that evening, the beautiful Bombgoster Boof aka "B" (she hates the name "Bombgoster", and can you really blame her?), a thief with a mind like a steel sieve (and a new PC at that). She had made her way to the town hoping to hook up with an adventuring party. A good friend struck down, and a new friend arrived to fill the void, the universe does indeed work in mysterious ways.

At the Tenacious Dagger,as the party reviewed their plans over a late night meal, an elderly woman, renowned in the village as a seer, approached the party. Wagging a wrinkly finger tipped in long, thick yellow nails, she warned that she had a vision and they must not return to the dungeon. "If you go, you will unleash a black death upon the whole of the town and none shall be spared its effect." And, she had already arranged a small but growing number of townsfolk to stop the party if they saw them heading there.

Feldspar, dashing, charming, and a smooth talker (CHR = 18), took the wise woman’s hand, thanked her for her warning and then turned on the charm. By the time he got around to asking her to call off the mob, she was smitten. Entranced by his good looks and his eloquent words she toddled out to call off the mob.

Early morning, the party woke to shouts in the street and the town’s gong ringing. Something was attacking one of the logging crews, not far from town. Men and women scrambled through the streets bolting doors and windows, while others gathered weapons, farm tools and the like. A few enterprising men raced to try and convince the armor purveyors to donate their wares to the cause.

Gathering their gear as quickly as possible, the party set out to find someone to point them to the camp. Lucky for them, the individual they found failed to realize, in the chaos of the moment, that these were the same people who they believed caused this very situation.

One problem: a party of people in plate mail was not going to get there any time soon.

Again the universe was kind and there were 3 sturdy horses tied up to a post in front of the inn. In times like this, one must consider laws and good etiquette to be secondary to the necessity of the moment. And so, the party untied the horses, and rode them full speed, two to a horse, to the camp, intent on destroying the creatures.

The stench of death and gore hung heavy in the air as they approached and they could see,through the trees, standing among scattered bloodied tents, three ghouls devouring the victims of their hunt.

Quickly, they dismounted and moved up on the camp.  In a flash, the battle was joined.

The ghouls, which had caused them so much grief in their last encounter, were no match for the rage that fueled each blow from the party's weapons. They never had a chance.

As the last ghoul fell, the party realized that they had an audience. Several of the townsfolk, bearing pitchforks, picks, hatchets and crude spears, had arrived, and at their front was the sheriff.

He surveyed the sight, thanked the party. This threat abated, they were welcome to stay in town. Still, he cautioned all, this was a wake-up call and they’ll need to build up the towns defenses; as more adventurers turn up to explore the dungeon, more evil may well come out of it.

*********

Body count: Fendrick (F:1), Malazar (M:1)

Killed: 1 gnoll, 1 ogre, 4 ghouls

Rooms explored: none

Treasure: 3240 gp and the right to stay in the town

Despite losing my favorite character, this was a great time. 

I'll post more thoughts on the 9Qs in another post, but suffice it to say I am a fan. They set you up for a roller coaster ride with an exciting conclusion. 

Mythic very often,at least for me, tends to move at a slow pace, like a novel, giving me plenty of exposition before things really get going. 

The 9Qs condense that. It starts slow, but the pacing quickens, and before you know it, you're hurling towards something potentially world changing - in this case, more innocents lost their lives, but the party ended the ghouls' reign of terror and the town would be safe, for awhile.

The Ever Expanding Dungeon + 9Qs, part 2

Q4 - Q6

Back on the trail of the creature, they found it lead to a previously unknown entrance to the dungeon. 

Rather than going into the unknown, they decided to set a trap for whatever was terrorizing the town, figuring it had to come in or go out sooner or later. 

A heavy fog rolled in, and although they heard something passing through, they saw nothing. To make matters worse, the trap failed to spring and our heroes returned to town empty handed. 

On the way back they stumbled upon a large bull elk torn in two - something scary was out there. And, unbeknownst to the PCs, it was watching them at that moment.

Going on a hedonistic shopping spree in town was, in retrospect, probably bad form, but the elk's corpse convinced all who could don it, to buy plate mail. Fortunately, by sheer coincidence, a wealthy merchant passing through town was able to convert the jewelry to coin and sell the party the desired armor.

On the way back to the dungeon, late in the day, the sun going down in the sky, a pack of ghouls (which I myself only learned was the villain in this story when the randomizer for Q6 gave me "cenotaph" and "forest") attacked the party. Malazar was struck down before the ghouls, who had lost one of their number as well, broke off the fight. 


I was somewhat disheartened by this. Malazar had become my favorite - the old man + brains of the operation. But, I live by the dice and I die by the dice - I wasn't about to fudge the roll.

Perceval, who had gone into the dungeon more times with Malazar than anyone was particularly hit hard. He strapped on Malazar's bandolier of 4 silver daggers and swore an oath of vengeance against the vile monsters.

Hindsight points out the obvious: going into the woods as night was falling was a bad plan.

The Ever Expanding Dungeon + the 9Qs: Sessions 5 and 6, part 1

Sunday and Monday night, I had a chance to continue my dungeon delve...

Malazar and Perceval (who has become a 1st level fighter - per the LL rules, any experience earned means a 0-level has to pick a class) spent some time hanging around the inn with Feldspar discussing their options. Feldspar was still sick but getting better.

Four days passed, money was getting tight and the party was getting antsy. The good news was that Feldspar had healed.

The bad news was that during this time, they learned that something may have left the dungeon in search of food and it has decided to prey on the townsfolk. Rightly or wrongly,The townsfolk blamed the adventurers for stirring things up and drawing attention to their village. They have been ordered to destroy the foul beast  - believed to be an ogre, troll or even a werewolf - or get out of town.

Meanwhile, a small party of adventurers who heard a rumor about the dungeon had arrived. Unable to find townspeople willing to accompany them as torch bearers or porters, they opted to seek out the cause of this reluctance.

Although they would have an overabundance of fighters, the parties deemed it mutually beneficial to join forces.

The new members are:

• Fendrick the Lovelorn Spelunker (F:1),
• Fader “12 Fingers” (F:1), 
• Sister Linkat, Acolyte of the Hedonistic Lumberjack (C:1). 

At this point, I decided that this adventure might make a good test of the 9Qs, created by JF at SoloNexus. 

Unfortunately, I didn't document everything well enough to show it in action, so, I'll break the session summary up into 3 question segments as JF does when he posts them, but sadly, it will lack useful information as to how I got there. 

For those familiar with the 9Qs, my randomizers were Wilderness Words and Rory's Story Cubes.

Q1 - Q3

The party managed to track the thing to a hidden gnoll village - the sight of a fairly recent massacre apparently. A scuffle with a crazed gnoll attacker drew the attention of an ogre who took the opportunity to charge the party. Ogres are quite a challenge for a small band of adventurers ordinarily, but when the magic-user still has his Sleep spell available, well, not so much.

While searching the huts, a coffer was found. Fendrick volunteered to smash it open, was sprayed with poison gas, failed his save and died. Well, that was quick.

The treasure inside, the first real haul in 5 sessions, and somewhat miraculously undamaged by Fendrick's crude lock picking technique, netted 6 pieces of jewlery worth 2840gp. Of course the party agreed to split the treasure equally, and even remembered to bury Fendrick in spite of the joy of finding such a valuable treasure.

The party had great hopes that the ogre was the creature they sought, but his lair proved otherwise. Although the cave floor was littered with bones, they weren't human - the disappointment was eased by finding a sack of 400 gp, the ogre's treasure.