DF Whiterock Session 60: Fire Trap

Date:

2019-08-09

Weather:

Warm, overcast

Player Characters:

Elias (Wiggles), Wood Elf Cleric, 336 points
Garreth (Zuljita), Half-Orc Fighter, 406 points
Ibizaber (Demented Avenger), Human Thief, 403 points
Polly (Kalzazz), Wood Elf Archer, 392 points

Seépravir (Archon Shiva), High-Elf Wizard, 419 points

Significant NPCs:

Lord Flitwick, Human Noble

Hugin, Human Mercenary
Lowrek, Giant
2 Giants
Vulgaris, Minyad Druid

Pendunkle, Gnome Submariner
Giant Diving Beetle

The group started in the town of Cillamar.  Zaber went looking for rumors, and heard stories about Hugin's prowess and Flitwick's depravity that he and Seépravir had originated.  Polly heard that King Stormwarden's visit to Cillamar was on again, and that summoning magic does not work near Castle Whiterock.  Polly went looking for the half-elven bard Brie to see if she had a lead on any elf cookies, but Brie wasn't around.

Seépravir researched the drow wizard's spellbook and found Acid Blood, Resist Acid, and Acid Jet, plus a bunch of more common spells.  She then busted out the Seeker spell and looked for the bastard sword Damarel (not found), Lord Flitwick (in a tent in a desert to the south, with a stupid-looking beard), his Wand of Smoke (locked in a chest in Mystenmere), and Brie (in a forest, hiding behind some trees, spying on a camp).

Zaber went looking for Hugin, but didn't find him.  Seépravir used Seeker and found that Hugin was waking beside a wagon, with a greatsword on his back, and his missing arm regrown.

At that point everyone was out of things to do in town, so Seépravir cast Flight on everyone, and they flew to Castle Whiterock.  She also cast Drunkenness on Garreth, and he had a hard time low-flying drunk while pushing a wheelbarrow, and smashed it into a tree.  The trip was otherwise uneventful, and the surface level of the castle was empty.  The group went down the elevator to the underground river level, where Garreth asked Seépravir to remove the Drunkenness so he didn't crash the skiff.  Then he successfully rowed the boat across the level, to the Immense Cavern.

Everyone flew west to the previously unexplored northwest corner of the cavern.  Zaber and Polly scouted ahead.  First they flew west until they found the west wall, then they went north along the wall.  Zaber spotted a trail running up the side of the wall, leading to a tunnel to the northwest.  They explored that way, and spotted some neat stacks of small boulders.  Then Zaber saw a large male humanoid with tattoos and piercings, holding a rock.  He didn't see Zaber (who was Invisible), and Zaber started flying away, but then he did spot Polly (who was not Invisible).

The giant was reasonably friendly, though he confused Polly for a human.  He asked some questions, then asked if she wanted to come up and have some beer.  That was enough to get Zaber's interest.  He became visible and then came around the corner, interested in the beer.  Another giant came up behind the first one.  They had a brief discussion.  Then he came back to Zaber and Polly, and asked if they had anything good to eat or drink.  The conclusion was that if they brought something good, Polly could come up and party with the giants, but not now because the giant leader was away.  But Zaber would have to prove himself first with Feats of Strength.  He was deemed to be too puny for rock throwing, so he could try worm riding instead.  Zaber asked the giant's name, and he said he was Lowrek.

Then Zaber and Polly flew away, continuing north along the cavern wall.  Eventually it started curving back to the east, so they were pretty sure they'd explored the northwest corner of the cavern.  When they thought they were far enough east along the north wall, they turned back south, and flew back to the others, and told them about the giants.

After some discussion, the group decided to go back to the probably-trapped room to the southwest.  When they got there, Zaber had premonitions of danger again.  He peeked into the room, which contained a dead monster with tentacles, and not much else.  Polly walked past him and started forward into the room, then heard a click.  A stone door that they hadn't seen started closing behind Polly, and another one started closing the other exit on the far side of the room.  Polly dove for the nearer door.  She made a critical success on her Acrobatics roll, then succeeded by enough on her Acrobatic Dodge to sail clear through the door before it shut.  Then the room started heating up, and a red glow was visible under the door.  It appeared something was on fire in there.

After a few minutes, the glow went away.  Zaber checked the door and found that it was only warm, not hot.  Polly covered the door with her bow, while Zaber found the hidden lock, then picked it open.  The door was quite heavy.  Polly walked over and started trying to shove it open, with difficulty.  Zaber found just the right place to help, and it flew open the rest of the way.  Inside the room, the monster corpse was blackened.

Zaber started carefully looking for the trap.  He thought he spotted a proximity trigger in the middle of the room, but was afraid that getting close enough to disarm it might set off the trap again.  Zaber threw a rock at it, and Polly shot an arrow at it, but nothing happened.  They decided to try again with a bigger rock.  Polly flew back to get one that she'd seen near the giants.  She gave it to Garreth to throw.  He focused on Power Blow, then threw the really heavy rock into the center of the room, with no effect beyond a loud thump.

Zaber decided the trap was probably triggered by the presence of life, rather than by weight.  Polly went and got another boulder, and put it in position to keep the stone door from closing completely.  Zaber adjusted the boulder a little.  Polly tied a safety rope to Zaber.  Then he moved into the room slowly until he heard a click, and flew for the door, while Polly pulled the rope.  He needed to use his Luck to reroll his dodge, but he got through the door before it mostly-closed.  A jet of flame came through the partial opening in the doorway, hitting Zaber, Garreth, and Elias.  Elias failed to completely dodge it, but had Resist Fire on, and suffered no damage.  Garreth and Zaber dodged.  Then Garreth kicked the rock into the room to let the door close.

Elias cast Resist Fire on Zaber, Polly, and Seépravir.  They tested the trap again, and proved that Resist Fire was adequate protection from it.  This gave Zaber the courage to go into the room and disarm the trap.  He set it off and was bathed in lethal doses of heat for about 15 seconds, but the spell saved him.  He then disarmed all the fire jets.  The magical life detection trigger was still in place, until Seépravir came in and cast Dispel Magic to remove it.  She critically succeeded, and realized that there had been two spells: an Alarm to trigger the trap whenever someone came in range, and a password to temporarily turn off the Alarm.

With the trap disabled, the group investigated the monster corpse.  It was thoroughly burned, but appeared to be large, cigar-shaped, and tentacled.  It was too big to fit in the wheelbarrow, and Seépravir wasn't sure what it was.

The group went out the southwestern exit of the formerly trapped room.  The tunnel continued for a while, then reached a set of well-made stone steps heading down.  They considered going downstairs, but it was too late in the session to start exploring a new level, so they decided to go talk to the halfling submariner instead.

At this point they needed elf cookies for the halfling, and beer for the giants.  Cillamar was pretty far, so they decided to see if Vulgaris had any mushroom-based snacks or booze that might suffice.  They flew back to the northeast corner of the Immense Cavern, then back to the skiff.  Garreth skillfully piloted it back to the southern end of the underground river level, where Vulgaris lived.

She greeted them by asking if the drow they killed had any nice rapiers that she could have.  Polly responded that, sadly, all the drow rapiers were lame.  After a break to touch her crystal rock formation, Vulgaris asked if they needed healing potions.  Polly indicated that they actually wanted cookies and beer.  Vulgaris said she did have some mushroom-based Deepwine, and some sweet nightcaps.  Garreth said that sounded good, and whether she wanted coins in exchange.  Vulgaris said she'd take coins if that's all they had, but she preferred a nicer rapier.

Zaber tried one of the nightcaps, and found that it gave him a mild buzz that made him happy.  Garreth and Polly tried them too, and also liked them.  They came to an agreement: $400 for a cask of Deepwine and $200 for a box of nightcaps.

With provisions gathered, everyone got back in the boat.  Garreth needed to use Luck to avoid a critical failure on a boating roll, but they made it back to the other dock intact, then flew across the Immense Cavern to the tunnel leading to the halfling's pond.  Polly touched all the letter O's on the door, and was teleported to the other side.  Seépravir followed suit (Invisibly), and they were standing on a ledge, while the water started bubbling and the gnomish submarine came to the surface.

The submarine's glowing claw waved at the PCs, then the hatch on the roof opened, and Pendunkle hopped out.  He asked where Polly's friends were.  Elias teleported across, then Garreth and (Invisible) Zaber.

Pendunkle asked if Polly had brought elf cookies.  She said that they had brought Minyad cookies instead.  He tried one, made a funny face, then turned to Zaber and asked what he put in the cookies.
"I assume it was you."  Then he said "Wow, now the invisible ones look purple!"  Zaber claimed that he hadn't spiked the cookies.  His girlfriend made them, and they grew that way.

Garreth asked if they could explore the cave for loot or secret doors.  Pendunkle said that was okay, but they needed to follow some rules.  First, don't hurt his friends the beetles.  Second, don't break his house, which was delicate and didn't have a lot of air for big people.  Third (looking at Zaber), no looting his house.

He then offered a tour of the Incomprehensible Mark I.  Zaber, Polly, and Seépravir were all interested in one, but Garreth was concerned he might not fit.  It turned out the submarine only had two seats, one for a tiny person and one for a human-sized person.  Pendunkle demonstrated Turmoil Mode, which made the three claws thrash around and froth up the water.  He then demonstrated Sonic Mode, which let him yell really loudly.  He said he could give one of them a ride, but not right now, as he needed to feed his pets.  Seépravir asked how he figured it all out, and he explained that he's a gnome, and very patient.  (The group had thought he was a halfling because of his tiny size.)  He then climbed back inside his vessel and drove it away to the north.

Not taking no for an answer, Seépravir flew above the submarine, then used Blink to pop inside.  She asked the gnome for an internship to learn about the submarine and other clockwork gadgets.  He declined, saying he didn't do well around other people for long periods.  He then asked if she teleported all the way from the ledge.  She admitted that she only had short-range Blink.  He asked her to leave, and started breathing funny.  She tried Mind Reading and saw that he was in some distress due to her presence and was trying not to freak out.  So she cast Breathe Water, and then Blinked out.

Seépravir then saw a giant beetle swimming toward her.  She stunned it with Death Vision.  While it thrashed around in terror, she flew back to the others.  Polly and Zaber were flying around, checking out the area around the ledge.  Zaber spotted a building on an island to the east, so they flew over there.  It was a falling down cabin, made of rocks, with a low ceiling.  There were some piles of rocks nearby, possibly rubble from the cabin.  Polly checked out the rocks, and found some twine sticking out.  Zaber took a look and decided the twine might be a trap.  There was a sack attached to the twine.  Zaber thought it was a trap desided to collapse the ceiling if someone pulled the sack, but he cut it, and then took the sack.  It was full of coins, plus a few shells.

Meanwhile, Seépravir cast Seek Magic, ignoring the group's own magic items and the submarine.  She spotted a strong magical source on the bottom of the pond, and pointed it out to Zaber.  But at that point we ran out of time, and paused there.  What's the magic?  We'll see next time.

GM's Comments:

This was a zero-combat sesssion, I think our first.  The PCs explored, talked to a giant and a minyad and a gnome, and disabled a big trap and a little trap.  The big trap was quite lethal and failed to kill them, so overall it was probably a successful session.