Date:
Demmasday, 16th of Ligarios, 2993 AE
Weather:
Warm, overcast
Player Characters:
Ioannes Grammatikos Byzantios, Archontean cleric of Demma (Demented Avenger)
Vallium Halcyon, Archontean fighter (Greybrown)
Michael J. Dundee, Thorcin barbarian (Adam)
Vael Sunshadow, Half-Elven mage (Kyle)
Uvash Edzuson, Dwarven cleric of Zodarrim (Based Cosmo)
Significant NPCs:
Sakeon, horse whisperer
Fael, half-elven food merchant
Unnamed large mule
Kronos Kettle-Belly, innkeeper
Estelle, innkeeper
Many large albino baboons
Four-armed intelligent giant baboon
Giant rats
A swarm of bees
8 ghouls
3 ghasts
The Left for Loot or Rich for Riches company decided they needed a mule, so they could haul more stuff up and down the Long Stair. They went to the Livestock and Horse Merchant in Gosterwick and bought a large mule from Sakeon. He also sold them a bit and bridle and six saddlebags, but Vale declined the saddle. They then visited the Grain Hall and bought enough various food to fill the saddlebags. With their heavily laden mule grudgingly following, they hiked from Gosterwick to the Cliff Face, then up the Long Stair to the ruins of Arden Vul. From there they continued north and west to the Sign of the Broken Head. There, they offered Kronos and Estelle a deal: most of the contents of the saddlebags at a reasonable cost. Kronos out-dealt them and they ended up giving him an even better deal than they intended, but he threw in mule stabling for up to two weeks.
With the mule and most of the food left behind, they decided to visit the baboon tower on the east side of the ruins. As they approached the tower, the baboons inside responded first with hoots and howls, then with thrown rocks. Nobody got hit. Vael cast a Concussion spell that he planned to throw inside the tower to stun some baboons. Seeing no entrances on the ground level of the tower, just some arrow slits, they decided to climb the partly-ruined city wall to the north and approach the tower from the second level. A couple of baboons detected their approach and threw more rocks. By the time they got closer to the tower, there were four baboons throwing rocks through arrow slits from the first floor of the tower and four more throwing rocks down from the roof. They also heard the much deeper growls of a giant four-armed intelligent baboon inside the tower.
As the party approached the tower, Vael tried throwing his Concussion through an arrow slit. It was an accurate throw, and a booming noise inside the tower stunned a couple of the large baboons as well as the huge four-armed one, while managing not to stun anyone outside. Vallium and Michael climbed up the wall, and when they reached the top they were face-to-face with four large baboons. The baboons mostly continued throwing rocks, but a couple were foolish enough to engage in melee and got aggressively parried. One baboon bravely tried to slam Vallium off the roof, and rolled a critical hit with excellent damage -- Vallium was knocked off the roof all the way down to ground level, about 30' below. Luckily for him, the falling damage wasn't too bad and his scale armor absorbed some of it.
This left Michael on the roof alone fighting four large baboons and the huge one that had just come up the stairs from inside the tower. Ioannes boosted Uvash up the wall to the roof, them climbed up after him, to help Michael withstand the hooting horde. Meanwhile, Vael pointed his staff down the side of the wall at Vallium and cast Flight, so that Vallium could rejoin the fight much more quickly.
Michael fought off several baboons, killing one, but took one pretty hard hit from the giant baboon. Both Uvash and Ioannes cast healing spells on him, while Vallium flew back up to the roof. A couple more of the large baboons went down, and the giant had one of its four arms crippled. The larger baboons were having a hard time penetrating Michael and Vallium's armor, and were taking damage from both direct attacks and aggressive parries.
Eventually, as the battle turned against his side, the huge baboon changed tactics and decided to slam Vallium off the roof again. Unfortunately for him, he missed, and went off the edge himself with a large crash. He somehow managed to survive the falling damage and even landed on his feet, but Vallium (with the Flight spell still active) chased him down to ground level to finish him off. Vael first cast a Grease spell under the giant baboon's feet, then a Smoke spell around his head, while Vallium kept stabbing. Eventually Vallium landed a huge critical hit and knocked the giant baboon unconscious. The surviving large baboons on the roof and inside the tower fled to the cistern to the east, while Vallium finished off their leader.
The group rested in the tower for a while, then searched it. The only interesting thing they found were three huge rolled-up tapestries, each about 8'x16' and 100 lbs. One depicted a battle between wizards and dragon riders. The second was a multi-panel story about the Fourth Labor of Arden, when she defeated the Berserkers of Westholm. The final tapestry showed the Seventh Labor of Arden, with Arden and Vul fighting a huge water elemental in a river above a waterfall. They rolled the tapestries back up, then Vael cast Flight on Vallium again, so he could fly the tapestries back to the Sign of the Broken Head where their mule was. This was a big production involving three round-trip flights and some Lend Energy spells from Ioannes to help Vael maintain the Flight for several minutes, but it avoided walking.
After more resting to recover from the spellcasting, the group decided to investigate the cistern to the east of the former baboon tower, where they had heard more baboon hooting before. They spotted an obvious blood trail from the tower to the cistern and then into a tunnel in the side of the cistern, but did not see or hear any baboons. Everyone climbed down into the cistern. Michael slipped and suffered some minor falling damage. Vallium investigated the opening of the tunnel and saw that it was narrow and claustrophobic and continued beyond their light source.
The whole group went down the tunnel, with first Vallium then Uvash in the lead. There were several side tunnels, but they were all dead ends, so there was one clear path. There were also a few places where the tunnel widened, but it was very tight most of the way. It sloped downwards gradually. After a surprisingly long walk, they heard the sounds of baboon hooting along with some squeaking. Sneaking ahead, they saw a group of three baboons fighting several giant rats. They stayed back and let the local wildlife battle, and after the last rat went down, Vallium snuck up behind one of the surviving baboons and stabbed it. The other one got away.
The tunnel split into a confusing maze of twisty little passages, some of which diminished to rat size. Others opened into a huge cave, with a few giant mushrooms and the sound of many many hooting baboons ahead. There had to be at least dozens of them. A quick conference ensued, and the group decided to retreat back to the cistern rather than fighting a huge swarm of baboons. Back at the cistern, Vael cast Shape Earth to plug the tunnel entrance. It was expensive, because it was worked stone, but his fancy wizard robes helped him draw enough power to successfully cast the spell. Vallium climbed up the wall of the cistern, then dropped a rope to make the climb easier for the others. This time, nobody fell.
Thinking about where to go next, Ioannes mentioned there was a tower nearby that they hadn't searched because of a nest of bees. Vael cast a Windstorm spell centered around the party and used the wind to chase away the bees, and they destroyed the nest. They searched the ruined tower, but didn't find anything interesting.
Despairing at the lack of loot, Vael cast Seek Earth looking for both gold and silver. Unfortunately the nearest of both was underground and a bit far. He then tried Seek Magic, and found some closer to ground level about 50 yards northwest. The group walked over there and didn't see anything, so he cast Seek Magic a couple more times to triangulate, and decided it had to be under their feet. There was quite a bit of rubble to dig through, so they walked over to the dam building where they had stored some shovels, and brought those back. After digging for a while they uncovered a cellar entrance. The cellar didn't have anything very interesting except a double door to the west and a single door north. They listened at both doors and heard some scratching sounds to the west.
Vael said he would cast Great Haste on Vallium, and asked both clerics if they wanted to pile on any buffs. Ioannes cast Flaming Weapon and Uvash cast Shield. As Vael finished his spell, Michael opened the door, and Vallium rushed in. There was a group of almost a dozen ghouls and ghasts in there, and Vallium charged in and started chopping them at unreal speed. Michael and Uvash followed him in, with Uvash pausing a second to invoke Heroic Grace and become supernaturally skilled with his mace. The fight lasted about five seconds. Attacking three times per second using the combination of an All-Out Attack (Double) and a regular Attack, Vallium downed most of the undead, with Michael and Uvash each taking down a couple. Vallium and Uvash each got hit once and briefly stunned by ghoul paralysis, but both quickly recovered.
With the ghouls vanquished, the group searched the cellar and found a copper candelabra and bowls, a heavy round electrum mirror, a couple of potions that looked magical, and a metal shield with the sigil of the Azure Knights that also appeared to be magic. They took their treasure back to the Broken Head, loaded most of it on their mule, and headed back to Gosterwick.
GM's Comments:
The baboons demonstrated the advantages of terrain and ranged weapons, using the tower and its arrow slits to their advantage. However, the PCs demonstrated the advantages of armor and weapons versus hide and teeth, as they were able to absorb many attacks from the merely-large baboons without damage, while their own blows tended to badly wound their enemies. (They were lucky the huge one didn't really connect though, as he was very strong.)
Achievements:
Found the Howling Caves, an Arden Vul Iconic Location
XP:
- Exploration: 5 new locations, good for 1 XP
- Loot: They didn't find a lot, but the tapestries and electrum mirror were valuable enough for 1 XP
- Achievements: 1 XP for an Iconic Location
Next Week:
I haven't heard any concrete plans yet. There was a bit of the usual discussion about taking down Plumthorn's gang. They might also try one of the other dungeon entrances they know about, or spend another week exploring the surface ruins.
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