DF Whiterock Session 62: Riders of the Purple Worms

Date:

2019-08-30

Weather:

Warm, overcast

Player Characters:

Elias (Wiggles), Wood Elf Cleric, 344 points
Garreth (Zuljita), Half-Orc Fighter, 412 points
Ibizaber (Demented Avenger), Human Thief, 409 points
Polly (Kalzazz), Wood Elf Archer, 400 points

Significant NPCs:

Vulgaris, Minyad Druid

13 Dire Bats

Purple Worm

Fjorjek, Stone Giant

Sard, Armadillo

Lowrek, Stone Giant

4 more Stone Giants

Pedunkle, Gnome Submariner

The group started in Cillamar, except for Seépravir, who was out of town.  The first order of business was finding beer for the giants.  After some shopping around, they decided to get 10 $150 kegs of Sylvan Gold.  Next they found clothing and musical instruments for Pedunkle, spending $2000 for high-quality items.  Zaber went looking for information on Lord Flitwick, but found nothing very interesting, just their own reflected propaganda.

Without Flight spells, the party had to walk to Castle Whiterock, pushing two heavy wheelbarrows full of beer.  Fortunately, they were not attacked on the way.  They dragged their burden across the top dungeon level, down the elevator, and over to Vulgaris's mushroom farm, where Polly placed a Minyad Deepwine order for Chauntessa.  Then they piled the wheelbarrows into a skiff, and Garreth rowed them across the underground river level, to the Immense Cavern.

A bit after they started hiking across the Immense Cavern, they were ambushed by a large group of Dire Bats.  However, Zaber saw them coming, and alerted the others before the bats achieved surprise.  Zaber Invisibly waited in ambush.  Polly fired three arrows, with one hitting a bat and two being dodged, then fast-drew her rapier.  Garreth readied his spear, and Elias kept pushing his wheelbarrow.

Four of the bats swooped in to bite Polly.  Three missed, and she parried the fourth, then swatted it in the head and knocked it out.  Garreth threw the pearly spear at one, but it dodged.  Six bats then swarmed Polly.  One bit her, but failed to penetrate her armor.  Another came in range of Zaber, who backstabbed it, not hard enough to knock it out.  One more tried to bite her, but she parried it.

Elias tried a shield slam, but the bat dodged.  Zaber stabbed the bat from behind again, and killed it.  Polly killed one.  Garreth threw a sai at a bat and critically hit it, but didn't knock it out.  One of the bats tried to bite Zaber, but he dodged.  Another one tried to get Garreth, but he parried.  Yet another went for Polly, but she parried too.  Two more went for Elias, but he just let them bite his heavy armor, and they failed to penetrate it, with one chipping a tooth.  Feeling invulnerable, Elias All-Out Attacked (Double), hitting a bat twice and stunning it.

Zaber stabbed a bat in the face, stunning it.  Polly stabbed two bats multiple times, killing one and knocking the other out.  Garreth swuing at a bat twice, missing once then knocking it out with the second blow.  At that point, the remaining bats realized they were overmatched, and started flying away.  Polly pulled out her bow and shot one of the retreating bats; the others escaped.

The bat bodies looked edible, so a couple were thrown in a wheelbarrow.  There was then some discussion on whether to visit the gnome or the giants first.  Zaber argued successfully for the giants, then led the group northwest toward them.  As they approached the giants' lair, the ground started rumbling, and a huge purple worm emerged with surprise.  It tried biting Zaber despite his Invisibility, and his Luck failed to make it miss, but his Bless saved him, converting the huge worm's bite into a miss.  While the PCs recovered from surprise, the worm prepared to make a second attack on Zaber, when suddenly a large rock smacked into its head.  And then another one.  The worm retreated back underground.  Looking west, the group saw two stone giants, holding more boulders.

One of the giants asked if the group brought the beer.  Seeing multiple kegs, they welcomed the PCs up the trail.  The smallest of the giants, named Fjorjek, asked where the wizard was.  When he found out she wasn't there, he asked who was in charge in her absence.  The anarchic collective eventually nominated Zaber as their spokesman.  Fjorjek said that to join their club, they needed to ride a worm.  And the first time they ride a worm, they had to bring beer.  And they could not tell the duergar about the club.  That was all the rules.

Polly noticed a small armored creature behind the giants.  It introduced itself to her as Sard, Fjorjek's familiar.  Nobody else heard anything.

After a bit of small talk and drinking, one of the giants walked to the bottom of the trail, then hammered on a spike in the wall for a while, causing loud booming noises.  The giant ran back up the trail.  A few minutes later, a worm emerged from underground.  A giant said that if you could stay on its back for 10 seconds, you win.

Garreth volunteered to try first.  He readied his spear, then waited for the worm to come near the ledge they were standing on, and jumped onto its back.  He stuck the spear into the worm's back to help hold on.  The worm didn't like that, and reared up to knock him off.  It was a lot stronger than Garreth, and knocked him off, even after he used his Luck to reroll.  Fortunately, Acrobatics let him land on his feet and reduced the falling damage he took, and he was able to run back up the trail before the worm bit him.

Zaber tried next.  He jumped onto the worm's back easily, then stabbed it with a spear.  Sadly, he didn't manage to hold on any longer than Garreth had.  Zaber went flying off, into the cavern's wall, taking damage from both the wall and the floor.  Fortunately he made his Acrobatics roll, landed on his feet, and got away.

Polly decided to grab a rope from the wheelbarrow.  She jumped onto the worm as it passed, and just barely managed to grab on.  She then tried to use the rope to attach herself to it, but, lacking Knot-Tying or Lasso skill, didn't really figure out how before the worm noticed her and reared up.  Once again, the worm was stronger than the rider, and Polly went flying off.  But she landed on her feet and managed to run for safety.

Elias went last, but he seemed to be playing a different game than the rest of the party.  He jumped on the worm's back, then started trying to smash it in the skull with his flail.  The worm didn't like that at all, and decided to dive underground, with Elias still on its back.  As it broke through the ground, Elias knocked the worm unconscious.  One of the giants yelled out "Dude, please stop pounding on the worm.  We need to worm to bring newbs into our club."  That was enough to persuade Elias to stop hitting the worm and climb up the trail to the others, where his companions were all asking for healing spells after sustaining falling damage.

Fjorjek proclaimed that all four had honorably (mostly) attempted worm riding, and were now free to share their beer and their clubhouse.  He also said that he should tell them the password to the duergar fire trap.  The password was "All Hail Thane Hrolad Vejik, and May His Beard Grow Long", in Dwarf.  Apparently Thane Hrolad Vejik was the duergar in charge of the Bleak Theater.  The PCs had a long discussion with the giants about the duergar, and drank a lot of beer.  Polly asked how much the giants would charge to help assemble and then guard a portal.  It appeared some kind of deal involving beer could be reached.

Then the PCs decided to go deliver supplies to Pedunkle the gnome.  They walked south, along the edge of the cavern avoiding the worm fields, then east until they found the passage south, then Polly hit the letter "O" in the sign to activate the teleporter.  Once again, as soon as they got there, the submarine was surfacing to greet them.  Pedunkle asked if they brought his stuff.  Polly said they had, so he jumped across to take a look at the clothing, lute, and mini-harp.  He went back into The Incomprehensible (Mark I) and got the bag of coins, and dropped it on the ground.  Zaber asked the gnome if he wanted a drink, but he said he didn't really drink anymore.  Polly asked if she could have a ride in the submarine, but the gnome said the Big Person Seat was full of stuff, and he needed to go tune his lute and harp, so not today, maybe another time.  He then jumped back in his submarine and drove away.

Polly mentioned that they had never looked down the left passage in the giant lair.  So the group went back to where they killed the dire bats to collect more corpses, then went back to the giants' cave with the bats.  After presenting their gift of food, they asked if they could explore the other caves.  The giants said they could visit the guest caves if they wanted, so the party went back, and found two more caves, each full of large bedrolls, but no more giants.  Polly tried a bedroll and found it reasonably comfortable.

Not wanting to challenge the duergar again without their wizard, the group headed back up.  Garreth skillfully rowed the skiff back to the other side of the underground river level, then the group went to warn Vulgaris that they might have some giants come by.  She told them that that was acceptable, if they could get her a nicer edged rapier.  Then the group went back to Cillamar.

GM's Comments:

The session was mostly fetch quests for NPCs.  Pedunkle got his supplies, and the PCs made a nice profit.  The giants got their beer, and the PCs got to drink some of it with them, and also get thrown off a purple worm.  Though the giants did probably save Zaber from getting swallowed whole by the worm, so it might have been a good deal.

Next time, we'll see if the PCs try assembling the portal or go back downstairs to meet the duergar.