How I Do Surprise, Initiative, and Turn Order in DFRPG

One of the DFRPG Arden Vul players asked how I do surprise and initiative.  I think I do them pretty much by the rules, but then most GMs probably think that, and yet they still do slightly different things because it's impossible to write RPG rules that are perfect and complete.  (This is the RPG version of Godel's Incompleteness Theorem.  If you can write perfectly clear rules for it, it's not complicated enough to count as an RPG.)

I use "Initiative" to mean the order in which combatants move in a role-playing game, and "Surprise" to indicate a special situation at the beginning of some RPG combats where some combatants don't get their normal actions until they recover.  ("Turn order" is a synonym for "initiative.")

GURPS initiative is different from initiative in most other role-playing games. Because there are active defenses, everyone's turns overlap.  Also, because all the turns overlap, there's a fixed turn order for the duration of a combat, rather than constant re-shuffling.  Surprise means that some combatants suffer Mental Stun and lose their turns until they recover, then proceed normally after that.  Dungeon Fantasy RPG slightly tweaks the basic GURPS surprise rules (see Exploits page 26).  I follow the DFRPG rules, but there's a certain amount of GM judgment required.

The first thing to consider is surprise.  There are three possibilities for a two-sided fight: nobody can be surprised, one side can be surprised, or both sides can be surprised.

Rule zero of surprise is that if there's no chance of surprise, you don't roll for it.  If two groups approach each other across clear terrain in broad daylight, you're done.

When there is a chance of surprise, you have to think about whether only one side can be surprised, or both can.  If two groups approach each other across clear terrain in pitch darkness, and one of those groups has Darkvision, they have a chance of surprise and their opponents do not.  Life isn't fair.  On the other hand, if two groups who've both been sneaky both turn a corner at the same time and end up meeting each other at close range, they both have a chance at surprise.

The rules say you can only achieve surprise if you're being sneaky (meaning you move at half speed), or you have some advantage that makes you sneaky by default (like Invisibility).  If you're loud, brightly lit, and stinky, then you don't get to roll.

For a one-sided contest, you roll the sneaky side's worst Stealth versus the other side's best applicable detection roll: Per (a good default if you have no specialized senses or detection skills), Vision (assuming you have a chance to see your opponents), Hearing (assuming you have a chance to hear them), Smell (I don't allow this for humans unless the opponents are extra stinky, but something like a guard dog with a really good sense of smell could use this to detect invisible and silent foes), Observation (if you've trained it up higher than your base senses), whatever the GM agrees makes sense.  If the sneaky side wins they get surprise, otherwise no surprise.

(Note that, for me, worst Stealth literally means the worst Stealth in the group.  I don't use the "part of the problem or part of the solution" rule to let a mostly sneaky group ignore a non-sneaky member, unless they actually take appropriate action like having a quiet person sneak ahead while leaving the loud person behind.  This means that every adventurer should have some points in Stealth, and every adventuring party should figure out how to get the least stealthy person in their group better at it.)

For a two-sided contest, it's a contest of each side's worst Per-based Stealth.  This is a clever way to combine both Perception and Stealth into a single quick contest.  Losing side gets surprised, and on a tie both sides are surprised.  (I don't think I've ever seen mutual surprise in several years of running DFRPG, but it'll happen someday.)

Once you're done computing surprise, you mark everyone who was surprised as Mentally Stunned, and then you do the usual turn order.  GURPS turn order is Basic Speed first, ties in Basic Speed broken by highest DX, and ties in both Basic Speed and DX broken by a die roll.  I also let players freely move down (later) in order, but once they do so, they can't move back up, as that could potentially be exploited to get two turns in a row.  (So, if your slower friend is in your way, you can either take a one-time Wait maneuver to Wait until your friend goes, or you can permanently move below your friend in turn order.  The advantage of the latter is that only some maneuvers are valid after a Wait, while if you just delay your spot in the turn order you can take any maneuver.)

The basic effect of Mental Stun is that you Do Nothing on your turn except roll to recover from Mental Stun, and all your defenses are at -4 as long as you're stunned.  So being surprised can get you killed.  The roll to recover is an IQ roll, with +6 for Combat Reflexes, so a rule of thumb is that dumb combatants need Combat Reflexes.  (Smart combatants might want it too, but they already spent all those points on IQ...)

With FoundryVTT keeping track, I'm happy to do individual initiative.  Groups of identical monsters will all be clumped together in turn order anyway, since they have the same Basic Speed and DX.  If a player controls multiple tokens and they're not clumped together and this bothers the player (because they prefer to move all their tokens together) or the GM (because the player loses focus when it's not their turn and this means getting their attention back more often), then a player can move all their tokens down in turn order next to their slowest token.  But this is definitely a place where house rules are fine -- if you want to do side-based initiative, you can.  You just have to decide whether the side with the fastest member goes first, or the side with the slowest member goes last.

I should also mention where new combatants slot in.  Basically, if you magically summon something in the middle of a fight, I don't let it do anything immediately on the turn it appears, but it slots into its normal spot in the turn order the next turn.  (Summoning sickness from Magic the Gathering in my GURPS?  It's more likely than you think.)  On the other hand, if something comes onto the battlemap from offscreen, it's probably in the middle of a Move maneuver in its first turn (though it could be Concentrate instead if teleportation is involved) and then can take any normal maneuver when its turn comes around again.

Finally, I do not modify turn order due to effects during a fight.  If someone casts Great Haste on you, you get two turns, but they're right next to each other, not spread evenly across the turn order.  (So as long as you know that nobody on the other side took a Wait maneuver, you can cheesily All-Out Attack on your first turn and then take a maneuver that allows a defense on your second turn.)  If you get slowed and only get to move every other turn, you stay in the same place in the turn order, just with a Do Nothing every other time.  If you drop your backpack or pick up a wounded companion and your encumbrance level changes, that effects your Move and Dodge, but you still stay in the same place in the turn order.  The only things that modify turn order are Wait maneuvers (where you temporarily delay your turn until triggered, take your action immediately, and go back to your usual spot in the order), and voluntarily moving down in turn order (which is usually a once-per-combat thing to move after an ally.)

As an aside, I like the DFRPG surprise rules better than the GURPS Basic Set surprise rules, because they make "no surprise" more likely, while in the Basic version, if surprise is possible at all, you only get "no surprise" if the modified d6 rolls are exactly tied.  (So, assuming reasonably close surprise modifiers, only about 1/6 of the time.)  On the other hand, I like that the Basic rules give a reason to have a leader (many PC parties clearly do not) and for the leader to have Combat Reflexes and Tactics and high IQ.  So maybe I'll write my own surprise rules someday that combine the things I like.  But I'm avoiding house rules in Arden Vul, so using my interpretation of the DFRPG rules as written.

DFRPG Arden Vul Session 20: The Outer Caverns of Set

Date: 

Basilsday, 26th of Masporios, 2993 AE 

Weather: 

Hot, dry

Player Characters: 

Uvash Edzuson, Dwarven cleric of Zodarrim (Cosmo)

Vael Sunshadow, Half-Elven mage (Kyle)

Vallium Halcyon, Archontean fighter (Greybrown)

Ioannes Grammatikos Byzantios, Archontean cleric of Demma (Demented Avenger)

Ashe "GOAT" Maykum, Goblin mercenary druid (ArchonShiva)

Significant NPCs:

Creon, pawnbroker

Egrk, caveman

Many other cave people

6 small chasm cephalopods

8 giant boring beetles

8 huge spiders

1 roper

Several unseen humans, including a female human fighter

Summoned manta rays, bat swarms, goats, boars, and warhorses

Vael suggested pushing the group's weekly delves into Arden Vul back a day, from Demmasday to Basilsday, to give an opportunity to shop at Gosterwick's Demmasday market, the biggest of the week.  Everyone agreed, but none of the peddlers at the market this week had anything very exciting for sale.  Vael did find some Delver's Webbing at Creon's Curios, and paid Creon to be notified of any new interesting items that came in before they went on the shop floor.

Michael was off in the woods somewhere, so the Right for Riches company hired the Grudge Brigade mercenary on call, the goblin druid GOAT.  GOAT brought along his recent invention, the Living Wheelbarrow, a wooden wheelbarrow containing enough living plant material that it could be affected by the Levitation spell.  He showed his creation to Vael, who immediately bought one.

The group set out early on Basilsday morning, confusing the gate guards who were used to seeing them every Demmasday.  They approached the waterfall without seeing anything of note, and took the small bridge over the Swift River about a mile south of the falls, to check out the west side of the cliffs and see if they could find Egrk's people.  After a bit of hiking they found a large cave at the base of a cliff, with a couple of primitively dressed warriors with spears standing guard outside.  After some rather unfriendly grunts, some more warriors came out of the cave, one of whom spoke a bit of Thorcin.  After a mention of Egrk's name, someone went to get Egrk.  Ioannes cast Gift of Tongues to enable fluent communication, and explained to Egrk that they were interested in trading for information.  Egrk talked to an older cave person and then said they needed metal weapons, metal tools and (after a female yell from inside the cave) some metal cooking pots.  The party said they'd bring metal stuff to trade next time, and asked if they could have any information now.  Since they had previously rescued him from being baboon chow, Egrk relented and pointed out a few spots on the cliff face.  He pointed at one spot halfway up the cliff and said that both the snake men and the lizard people came out of that one.  He pointed far across the waterfall and said the barking dogs came out of the entrance over there.  He then pointed back to the south and said the blue knights on big horses came from that way, and were jerks.

After the spell expired and communication became difficult again, the party waved goodbye and headed back east toward the waterfall.  Since they had GOAT along, they decided to go behind the waterfall again.  Vael first used Shape Earth to make a hole in the side of the cliff for the wheelbarrow and closed it up again.  GOAT summoned two large manta rays to tow people, and cast Swim and Breathe Water on someone, while Vael had a Ring of Free Action that let him move through water rapidly.  Using the combination of manta rays and magic, the group ran or swam or were towed through the tunnels behind the waterfall, emerging in the grotto.  After a pause for breath, they submerged again and went up some stairs to the north into the dry halls.

Vallium wanted to check out some stairs to the west.  GOAT dismissed the manta rays and summoned some goats and boars and bats, and then the whole group went west to a broken door.  Vallium pulled out his platinum token of Arden and inserted it into a slot next to the broken door, which didn't have any visible effect because the door was already smashed.  They proceeded past a statue of Arden with huge hammers in both hands, surrounded by smashed (and previously looted) corpses.  The statue did not animate.  They went out a door to the north, then started up the stairway up that they had previously found but not explored.

Vael cast Levitation on himself, and everyone else started trudging up the stairs.  When the stairs finally ended after about 700 feet, they emerged into a large circular room that was once tiled in blue and was currently partially tiled in blue and full of fallen blue tiles on the floor.  There was a large magical octagonal pillar in the center of the room, with bas reliefs carved on most of the sides:

• A handsome man with a neat beard, with empty spherical eye sockets
• A stereotypically Archontean looking middle aged woman, with large empty disc-shaped eye sockets
• A monstrous-looking creature that resembled Gog, with an open oval-shaped mouth
• A caricature of a priest of Thoth, with small empty disc-shaped eye sockets
• A goblin with a large hole where its missing nose should be

Vallium had some small gold grooved discs that he hoped might match one of the holes, but they did not.  Everyone went through their small items looking for anything that was an obvious match, but nobody had anything that looked like an obviously good fit.  Someone suggested bringing different kinds of coins and gems next time.

After abandoning the pillar, they explored west but hit a dead-end caved in passage.  They then went south and heard some giant rats scampering ahead.  The cave to the south had a couple of smaller natural pillars, one with some stuff on top.  Vael levitated up and looked at some spikes and ropes and poles without taking them, then noticed and took a healing scroll.  They headed northwest through more rough passages and saw a worked floor to the north.  There was some kind of magical force field blocking entrance to a room to the west, so Vael used Shape Earth to dig a small hole around it, and GOAT went in.  He saw a large basket, a bunch of rope, and a few crates of weapons with Imperial seals.  He opened the crates and found some shortswords, spears, and knives, all of which the group took.  Vael decided to sabotage the ropes, attempting to disguise the damage so that some Set cultist might find out about it by the rope snapping at an inconvenient moment.

Vael sealed up the ends of the tunnel into the storage room, and then the group continued north and saw two statues flanking some stairs leading up and north.  Ioannes and Uvash agreed the statues were Set.  Vallium thought the exit to the cliff might be that way, but Vael (who claimed to have Absolute Direction) said the exit would be to the south.   So rather than going up the stairs, they turned around and went back south, then west.  They found a skeleton with two magic wands, one of them a broken Settite Was stick and the other unknown.  They took both for later investigation and then went south to a chasm, deeper than their Continual Light illiminated.  With Levitation still on, Vael flew out into the chasm to investigate, but saw several small Chasm Cephalopods flying up from below to greet him.  He yelled a warning and flew back north to the others.  A short fight ensued, with the cephaolopods losing, but taking some bat swarms with them.

Deciding that exploring the small chasm solo wasn't the safest idea, they doubled back and returned to the room where they'd found the gear on top of the pillar.  From there they headed south, and saw some bright natural light ahead.  They also spotted a small passage heading east.  They went to the exit and saw a chest containing another large basket along with ropes, pulleys, and red signal lanterns.  They looked out to get an idea of where they were on the cliff face, then Vael decided to sabotage some more ropes.

Heading back into the cave, the group went east down a short passage, filled with slippery purple fungus.  GOAT used his naturalist skills and an Identify Plant spell to ascertain that this was indeed slippery purple fungus, with Mithric name Fungus Slippius Violetus, edible but with no known medicinal uses.  They sat down to rest, but their rest was quickly interrupted by a giant beetle coming to investigate.  It was hungry enough to attack, so a fight broke out.  Seven more beetles joined the fight, but the beetles lost.  There was some discussion of trying to fashion armor out of beetle carapace, so Vallium tried removing some large chunks from one beetle corpse, but didn't do a very neat job of it and ended up with a bunch of small chunks.  GOAT looked closely at the beetles to see if they were natural animals that he might be able to summon in the future, but they were unnatural.

They spotted a hole in the floor, too deep to see the bottom.  Vael dropped a glowing rock into the hole and saw a finished floor about 35' below, covered with more purple fungus.  A minute later, another large beetle appeared to investigate the glowing stone.  They decided not to go down into the hole and face more beetles.  Vael decided they weren't finding treasure fast enough, so he cast Seek Earth looking for platinum, and thought there was some about 15 yards to the northeast.

After some rest, they headed east through some more caves, and GOAT spotted a huge spider staring at him with too many eyes.  As the goblin jumped back, the spider and several of its friends advanced.  Another fight ensued, though the spiders were squisher than the beetles so it didn't last as long.  Uvash got bitten at one point, but fortunately the mandibles did not penetrate his armor, so his poison resistance was not tested.  When all the spiders were dead, GOAT checked to see if the spiders were summonable animals, and was again disappointed to find that they were unnatural.

Vallium, who had borrowed the Ring of Free Action from Vael at some point, waded through the spider webs looking for treasure, and found several corpses (3 human and 3 lizardfolk) wrapped up in webs.  He passed the bodies out to the others for investigation and kept sifting through the webs.  The total take was a few coins, a small soapstone idol, some red Set scale armor, a shortsword, and a letter about someone named Theskelon, with an addendum in different handwriting about his tomb.

After resting, they headed north then west and found a large cavern, with a lot of stalactites and stalagmites, a magical mosaic on one wall depicting a bridge, and a few fresh corpses, one of them half eaten.  While investigating, Vallium felt some sticky ropes hitting him from above, then a large creature dropping and biting him.  The bite was vicious, but Vallium's thick scale armor protected him enough that he was still able to fight back.  The ropes didn't stick because of the Ring of Free Action.  Vallium yelled a warning, and everyone else eventually focused and joined the fight.  The roper attempted to rope Vallum a couple more times before being certain that he was unnaturally slippery and unropeable.  By then Vallium had stabbed it a couple of times, and the roper decided to leave and find an easier lunch.  Vael cast Great Haste on Vallium, enabling him to chase down the roper.  Meanwhile, GOAT summoned a heavy warhorse and sent it stampeding into the monster.  The roper was knocked down and stunned, just in time for Vallium to catch up and stab it several times.  The roper killed the summoned horse, so GOAT summoned another one, but it wasn't needed, as Vallium killed the roper before the cavalry arrived.

Vael thought there were about where the platinum should be, but didn't see any, so he cast Seek Earth again, which said the platinum was inside the roper corpse.  At that point they dissected the beast, and found one huge ancient octagonal platinum coin, along with several gems and a magic ring.  While Vallium and Vael rested, the rest of the group kept chopping up the roper hoping for more treasure, but eventually gave up.

There was a worked passage heading west, blocked by a cave-in.  Vael decided to use Shape Earth to dig a tunnel through the cave-in.  As the tunnel broke through, they heard voices from the other side, yelling for Gordy and Quade to stand guard, and a lot of noise.  Not wanting to get ambushed, Vael made a large Concussion missile and threw it through the hole, and then GOAT sent in a couple of bat swarms to clean up.  A few minutes later, they went through the hole, and found one freshly dead female fighter (with bleeding ears and a fatal number of bat bites) and a lot of dead bats.  There was an interesting (but immovable) frieze of a Settite scene on one wall, and a pile of heavy loot.  The rest of whoever had been there were gone.  They looted the body, and then went through the pile of stuff to find several packs of bulk food, a couple of casks of brandy, a few pelts (one of them surprisingly enchanted!) and a heavy carpet.

They grabbed all the loot and got ready to head back to Gosterwick.  Leaving the room to the west, Vallium spotted a tripwire on the floor, and did not trigger it.  Given a choice between just taking the basket down or climbing down 700' of stairs then going underwater, they decided to take the basket.  However, Vael had sabotaged the ropes, so they first had to repair the ropes.  Once they thought the ropes were sturdy enough, they lowered two people at a time down in the basket, and finally Vael levitated himself down the cliff face.  They dug the wheelbarrow back out of the cliff and used it to bring the pile of loot back home.

GM's Comments:

Vael started the session wearing the Ring of Free Action, but he passed it to Vallium when they reached the slippery purple fungus (because Vael was Levitating so wasn't worried about bad footing).  Vallium was very lucky he was wearing that ring when the roper randomly chose him as the victim, because all the binding rope attacks automatically failed.

Other than the roper, nothing else surprised the party despite their noise and bright lights.  The saw both the beetles and spiders in time to defend themselves, and they were the ones who dug through a caved-in wall, scared whoever was on the other side, and killed their rear guard.

I was amused when they sabotaged both the basket and backup basket, and then decided the basket was the best way home.  Planning!  However, knowing that something is sabotaged and exactly how is a good first step to repairing the damage, so nobody fell.  (They were one critical failure away from the repair failing, but they thought of that possibility and sent the GOAT, who had Levitate, first.)

Achievements:

None

XP:

• Exploration:  20 new locations, good for 2 XP.
• Loot: No really amazing items but a lot of stuff, 2 XP.
• Achievements: 0
• Total: 4 XP

Next week:

I have no idea where they are going, and neither do they.   They discuss it a bit during the week, make no clear plan, and then wing it at the last minute.

At this point they've found the following areas:

• Surface Ruins of Arden Vul
• Basement (they think they have probably fully explored this)
• Well of Light
• Howling Caves
• Halls of Thoth
• Great Cavern
• Caves presumably leading to the Forum of Set
• Gog's Cave
• Bottom of Privy Shaft
• Caves behind the waterfall

They also have the Scorpion Teleporter, which they have used 3 times and ended up in 3 places.

DFRPG Arden Vul Session 19: The Pool of Donkey Ears

Date: 

Demmasday, 18th of Masporios, 2993 AE 

Weather: 

Hot, dry

Player Characters: 

Michael J. Dundee, Thorcin barbarian (Adam)

Uvash Edzuson, Dwarven cleric of Zodarrim (Cosmo)

Vael Sunshadow, Half-Elven mage (Kyle)

Vallium Halcyon, Archontean fighter (Greybrown)

Ethereum "Coinbase" Thuringwador, Elf Illusionist (Mercenary) (Archon Shiva)

Significant NPCs:

Several of Kronos's Thorcin guards

Kronos, innkeeper at the Sign of the Broken Head

Lankios, ancient Archontean hermit

Zombie porter

Many stirges

Gray ooze

4 Baboon skeletons

Human skeleton

Several halfling toll collecting gangsters

Ibis-headed guardian of Thoth

Animated statues of Sekhmet and Osiris

Lion construct

Ioannes was not available, so the group visited the Grudge Brigade to hire a mercenary.  The mercenary on call was the annoying elf Coinbase, who immediately started trying to sell everyone on his new illusion-based tactical assistance system and also on the GOAT's new living (and thus able to be Levitated) wheelbarrow, available for sale soon.  As part of his continuing attempt to make friends and influence people, Vallium bought another (regular) wheelbarrow load of food.

When they reached the Long Stair up to the ruins of Arden Vul, Vael and Coinbase decided to Levitate themselves up, while the others roped themselves together and started hiking.  The ropes were a good idea, as Uvash slipped and went right over the edge, but Vallium and Michael yanked him back up.

They pushed the wheelbarrow all the way to the north end of the ruins, where Kronos's guards occupying the northern gate towers hailed them and engaged them in a brief conversation.  Nobody had any significant news to share, so they headed west to the Broken Head.  Kronos himself was outside supervising his staff, and Vallium sold him half of his wheelbarrow of provisions at cost.  Kronos was happy to make the deal and asked if anyone wanted to come into the inn for a drink, but Vael said that they didn't want to drink and delve but might come back later.

The group doubled back east and south near the Pyramid of Thoth, and Vallium showed them the stairs leading down into a nearby ruin.  They left their wheelbarrow by the stairs, and Vallium took everyone north to the room with the altar that had a secret compartment that he had not figured out how to open.  Vallium showed them where the panel was, and how to trigger a poison needle trap.  He expected Vael to magic it open, but instead Vael just figured out the trick and hit the panel in the right spot.  Inside was a bag containing a bunch of small red gems and a small magical silver feather token.

Vallium then took the group east to Lankios's room, but the hermit was not home.  Vallium left a bunch of food by the old man's pungent stew pot, and Vael wrote Lankios a note.  Next Vallium took them west to the room with the zombie porter, warned everyone that there was a friendly zombie inside and not to kill it, and then opened the door.  The zombie once again slowly walked right up to Vallium, and Vallium demonstrated putting a backpack on the porter and then having the porter slowly follow him around wearing it.  They didn't really need the porter, though, so Vallium took his backpack back and closed the porter in the room again.

Next they decided how to deal with the room full of stirges.  Michael had a serpent amulet to protect him from fire, and Vallium had a fire resistance potion, so the plan was to create a bunch of fire and have them fight the stirges from within it, while Vael strategically moved the flames around to torch stirges.  This plan worked pretty well; Vallium and Michael killed a few stirges, Vael's magical fire burned a couple more, and the rest fled up a chimney.  Vael then used Shape Earth to fuse the chimney shut so the stirges couldn't return to the room.  The group then tore the stirge nest apart, finding some coins, some magic incense, a small magic bronze baton, and some adventurer's diary.  Once all the loot was removed, Vael burned the stirge nest.

There were several stone vats in the room to the south, which had been left intact last time.  Vael was suspicious that something might be hidden in one of them, so he had Michael tip the three full vats over, so they could thoroughly search them.  No treasure was found, but the vat full of something spoiled made the whole room stink, to the point where Vael needed to cast Purify Air.

There were two unexplored doors to the west.  One just led to a hallway, and the group walked around a bit completing their map.  Another led to a privy, with the smelly privy shaft going deeper than the range of their Continual Light, and unexpectedly containing ladder rungs.  Nobody felt like climbing down a ladder, but Vael cast Wizard Eye and put a dim Continual Light on it, then sent the Eye down to scout.  The shaft went down about 500 feet.  At the bottom was a natural cavern, with exits east and west, and a paved area to the south containing a sarcophagus and four burned corpses.  One of the corpses had what appeared to be magical mail armor, along with a longsword and a metal shield.

That was enough treasure that they couldn't just leave it, so they discussed whether it would be better to cast Levitation on both Vael and Coinbase, or Flight on Michael or Vallium.  (Vael could not easily maintain Flight on multiple people at once.)  Michael volunteered, so he dropped his backpack and shield to reduce his load, and Vael cast Flight on him.  Michael zoomed down the shaft, and noticed a ring tied to a ladder rung near the top.  Not wanting to waste spell duration, he yelled to the others about the ring and resumed flying down, while Coinbase Levitated down a few feet to grab the ring.  When Michael got to the bottom he looked around a bit, then headed to the corpses to take their stuff.  He quickly grabbed the sword and shield and was partway through removing the mail armor when he saw a gray ooze creeping along the ceiling to attempt to drop on his head.  Michael was much faster than the ooze, so rather than risking a solo fight, he flew around it to the far end of the cavern, waited for it to come get him, then flew back around it to the corpses and finished taking the mail, then flew back around it again and up the privy shaft.

While Vael rested to recover from maintaining Flight, a couple of the others went to fetch the wheelbarrow, put most of the loot in it, and stash it behind a door where other adventurers were unlikely to find it.  Vael cast Seek Earth for gold, and sensed some gold about 15 yards south.  Everyone searched for secret doors on the southern wall, and eventually found one.  It was locked.  Vael found the keyhole but nobody had a key that fit, so he Lockmastered it open.  Vallium opened the door, into a room with a human skeleton with an axe and 4 baboon skeletons.  The skeletons attacked, a brief fight ensued, and the adventurers won, with a shield rush from Coinbase into the human skeleton's back knocking it down and making it stop dodging so effectively, so Vallium and Michael could chop it up.

The room didn't contain the expected gold, so everyone searched for secret doors again.  This time, the secret door was unlocked, and behind it was a small room with a bunch of golden altarware, a small coffer full of silver coins, and a small ivory and ebony statue of Thoth.  They took all the treasure and added it to the pile in their wheelbarrow.  Vael tried another Seek Earth looking for gold, and another one looking for platinum, and a Seek Magic, but all the nearest treasures appeared to be up on the surface or another level, so they decided this one was done.  Vael was unhappy with his empty map, though, so he had the others guard him while he circled the level mapping.  When they reached the pool of sludge, he filled a vial with a sample to check out in the alchemy lab back at the Arcane Practitioners' Club in Gosterwick.

Finally done mapping the basement, the group went north to the spiral stairs down, then down the stairs to the halfling level, then through the illusory wall.  Vallium led the group south through the remnants of the one-way door that he and Thronebreaker had destroyed, then east through the room where they had killed a dust elemental, to a previously unexplored door.  Everyone listened at it, then they opened it and found a room bisected by the Great Chasm, with a narrow bridge crossing it.  Vael and Coinbase Levitated over, while the others carefully crossed the bridge.  To the south was a halfling guard post overlooking the chasm, and they heard the sounds of halflings yelling about their lights and calling more guards.  In the center of the room was a large statue of Thoth in baboon form, with both arms on pins.  There was a door on the north wall and two doors on the east wall, and listening revealed no sound behind any of them.  Someone tried one of the doors, but it was locked, and Vael thought something on the door looked magic.  At that point Vael started manipulating the statue arms into various combinations of positions.  A couple of positions seemed to cause noises far away, or maybe that was just the halflings.  Another position caused a secret door on the east wall to open, and an angry ibis-headed construct of Thoth came out to attack.  The fight was five on one, though, so the construct didn't last very long.  After it was dispatched the group searched the small secret room it had come out of, but found nothing.

Vael went back to playing with the statue arms, and eventually managed to open one of the eastern doors.  They went east down a hallway, then north into a room with three sarcophagi.  Uvash tried a spell to detect undead, and didn't find any.  Vallium took the lid off a sarcophagus, and a bunch of darts flew out at him.  One was directly on target, but his amulet of missile protection caused the dart to curve around him.  Inside the sarcophagus was a mummy.  They tore the wrappings open to find some jade jewelry and a garnet gem.  Vallium repeated the process with the other two sarcophagi, with similar results.  Vael carefully scooped up all the darts into a pouch, hoping whatever black substance they were covered with was worth something.

They continued down the passage to the east and found a huge room to the north, containing 6 large statues and one huge statue.  Uvash identified all seven statues for the group: Sekhmet, Set, and Anubis down the right side; Osiris, Horus, and Isis on the left, and a much bigger statue of Thoth in the north center.  A few minutes after everyone came in, the statues of Sekhmet and Osiris moved into the center of the room and started smashing each other.  The Thoth statue yelled "Halt" in Mithric (which only Uvash spoke, and not well) and both statues froze, with Osiris dropping his (human-sized, magical-looking) flail.  Thoth then yelled something like "a smart one must choose" in Mithric.  Vael could not resist, and picked up the flail.  At that point the lion on top of Sekhmet's head animated into a separate construct and attacked Vael, while the rest of the group found themselves completely frozen in place and unable to act.  The lion construct tried to bite Vael, and in response he Blinked 3 yards straight up, out of its reach.  After making sure there was no way the statue could reach him, he then calmly started dropping acid, Alchemist's Fire, and small Concussion spells onto the statue until it was destroyed.  As the unfair fight finished, the Thoth statue yelled "Halt" again, and everyone unfroze.  Vael felt some kind of divine blessing make him slightly tougher, and kept the flail.

The group continued east, and saw some orange Continual Light coming from a room to the south, containing a fountain.  Breaking their usual directional rules, they headed for the light.  The fountain appeared magical.  Uvash took a sip, and his ears transformed into donkey ears.  This did not appear to affect his hearing either way; he just looked weird.  (Though he had a chain coif, so he really only looked weird if he took it off.)  The rest of the group decided not to take a drink.

Everyone went west from the fountain, then south into a room with 3 more sarcophagi and a bunch of small holes in the floor.  Everyone except Vallium and Uvash stepped out of the room.  Uvash tried to detect undead, and didn't find any.  Vallium opened a sarcophagus lid.  A bunch of spears came out of the floor, stabbing the armored legs and feet of both of them.  Fortunately, none of the spears managed to penetrate their armor.  Uvash left the room, and Vallium climbed up on top of the sarcophagus, out of spear reach, to continue his looting.  The first sarcophagus contained another mummy, along with some rusty mail and a shield.  Vallium unwrapped the mummy to find more jade jewelry.  He repeated the process with the other two sarcophagi, avoiding the spear holes, and got some more jewelry as well as a couple of maces, a scroll, and a small pouch of silver coins.

Judging that they had enough treasure for the day, the group carefully traced their steps back over the chasm bridge, through the illusory wall, up the spiral stairs, and retrieved their wheelbarrow.  They then headed up to the surface ruins of Arden Vul, south to the Long Stair, down the cliff face, and back to Gosterwick.  Their luck held on the hot summer day, and nothing attacked them on the way home.

GM's Notes:

Arden Vul's got 1100 pages of intricate level design with complicated factions and deep history, but it's also got magic pools that can give you donkey ears, like some TSR adventure from 1978 written under the influence of Thoth-knows-what.  Fantastic.

I thought Vael was the PC least suited to the solo combat scenario against Thoth's pet lion statue, but he demonstrated that if you can fly, your opponent can't reach you or run away, and you have any ranged attacks with lots of ammo, you will eventually win.  No style points, but he won.  Also, "up" is a valid direction for Blink if the ceiling is high enough, and this is particularly useful if you have Levitation on.

Achievements:

None

XP:

• Exploration: 9 new locations,  1 XP
• Loot: Some coins and gems and jewels and gold and silver.  A few minor magic items.  The most valuable thing by far was the fine mail armor that Michael dragged up from beneath the privy.  2 XP
• Achievements: None
• Total: 3 XP each.  Vael also got 1 extra HP for the statue fight.

Next Week:

Maybe they'll keep exploring this level and see if anyone else can get donkey ears.  Maybe they'll go back up to the baboon level and look for the Library of Thoth.  Maybe they'll go back down the privy.  I have no real idea at this point, and I suspect the players don't either.

DFRPG Arden Vul Session 18: Back Down the Well of Light

Date:

 

Demmasday, 11th of Masporios, 2993 AE 

Weather: 

Hot, dry

Player Characters: 

Ioannes Grammatikos Byzantios, Archontean cleric of Demma (Demented Avenger)

Michael J. Dundee, Thorcin barbarian (Adam)

Uvash Edzuson, Dwarven cleric of Zodarrim (Cosmo)

Vael Sunshadow, Half-Elven mage (Kyle)

Significant NPCs:

Several large albino baboons

Yrsko, giant 4-armed intelligent baboon cook

Brokenneck and 2 other goblin prisoner / cooks

Marco, one-armed beastman prisoner

Ketil, Wiskin ranger prisoner

Egrk, caveman prisoner

Shrieker mushroom

2 small spotted mushroom people

Stamelis, enchanted head of a Thothian librarian

Undead librarian

Vael returned from Newmarket, after doing some shopping and failing to meet the wizard in the Tower of the Ape.  He rounded up Michael, Uvash, and Ioannes for a trip back to the ruins of Arden Vul.  After ascending the Long Stair (with 3 of them roped together and Vael Levitating) they decided to go down the Well of Light.  Vael first cast Darkness above the Well to make the mirrored shaft less blindingly bright inside, then cast Flight on Michael, who carried each of the others down the Well in turn.

The mirror at the bottom of the well was once again covered in debris and baboon feces.  The group spent a few minutes cleaning it off, then went east then southwest and explored a small room with some benches and and inscription on the wall that said "Let the Faithful Render Honor and Glory to the Light Which Reveals All” in Mithric.  Ioannes poked at a magical-looking marble circle on the floor with his axe, then stood on it, but nothing interesting happened.

The group continued southwest, then went east down a narrow passage that ended in two doors.  They listened at both doors, and heard low mumbling behind one and hooting behind the other.  Vael and Ioannes cast Blur and Shield on Michael, and they opened the northern door.  Behind it was a large room containing 4 of the large albino baboons, who immediately charged at the intruders.  Michael and Uvash fought them in the doorway, while Vael cast Grease and Smoke in front of the other door.

While Michael crippled both arms of a baboon, the other door opened and a giant 4-armed baboon came running out, then slipped and fell on the grease.  Michael backed up to fight the big one while it was down, while Uvash and Ioannes continued fighting the smaller baboons.  Michael landed several solid blows on the huge one while it struggled to get up, while Uvash killed one of the smaller baboons.  Two of the baboons ran away, but not before one of them landed a crippling blow on Ioannes' right arm.  The big one, almost dead, tried to surrender, but then passed out.  After waiting a few minutes for him to get up, the group decided to just kill him, along with another unconscious baboon.  Uvash cast Major Healing on Ioannes, and his arm fortunately started working again.

Worried the fleeing baboons might bring friends, they explored the northern room, which appeared to be a dining room with only one table.  They spotted a goblin peeking though a doorway to the east.  Continuing to the east, they found a kitchen, with 3 scared goblins who appeared to be cooks.  Chained to the walls were two humans and a one-armed dog-headed beastman.  One of the goblins spoke a bit of Archontean, and said that his name was Brokenneck and he and his companions had been captured and enslaved by the baboons.  One of the humans chained to the wall was Ketil, a ranger with a strong Wiskin accent.  The other was Egrk, who didn't speak any Archontean.   The beastman was Marco, whose missing arm had been used as an ingredient in one of Yrsko the giant 4-armed baboon chef's meals.  Ioannes cast Gift of Tongues to enable communication with Egrk, and ascertained that he lived in a cave west of the waterfall and had been taken by a nocturnal raiding party of baboons.  The others had similar stories.  Also in the kitchen were a fireplace with a chimney heading up, and a large magical cauldron.  Ioannes asked the goblins about the cauldron, and they explained that if you said one word it got hot and if you said a different word it got cold.

Michael tried breaking Ketil's chains, but they were too strong to snap without heavy tools.  Vael asked Brokenneck if he had the keys, and the goblin replied that Yrsko the big baboon cook had them.  

The group went into the room to the south, which appeared to be the big baboon's bedroom, and contained a makeshift bed, a chest, and a bookshelf.  Vael cautiously Apportated the chest open, and inside were a few chef's hats, a dirty apron, a nice quality knife, and some keys.  There were also a couple of cookbooks on a bookshelf, one focused on mushroom dishes, the other on general Archontean cuisine.  Vael grabbed the knife, books, and keys.  Returning to the kitchen, they unlocked all the prisoners.  They told them they would get them all out, and asked the goblins to carry the cauldron.

Continuing south from Yrsko's room, they saw closed doors to the south and east.  They listened to both and didn't hear anything.  They first went south, and found a room with paintings of a jungle scene with baboons on the wall.  To the south was a mulch pit full of mushrooms.  As they approached, one of the mushrooms started shrieking.  Ioannes stepped forward to silence it.  This was effective, but offended a couple of small mushroom people who were hiding in the mulch pit.  Both attacked Ioannes, the first ineffectively, the second landing a pretty good punch.  This drew the attention of Michael and Uvash, who finished off both of the mushroom men.

On the east side of the room was a large bust of a middle-aged Archontean man, which appeared magical.  Vael tried talking to the statue, and he surprisingly responded.  He said his name was Stamelis and he had been a Librarian of Thoth.  Vael and Ioannes asked Stamelis a lot of questions, and he verified that the Library of Thoth was just to the west of here, that this had been Gerrilad's room, that Gerrilad hasn't been here for a couple of weeks, and that Gerrilad was not an adherent of Thoth, but followed some odd nature religion and seemed to have an unhealthy obsession with baboons.  Vael wanted to take the statue with them, but it was hundreds of pounds, so they left it for now, but told Stamelis that they would return.

They checked the door to the north, and found a bedroom, with nobody home.  There was a chest, which Vael again used Apportation to open.  Inside was a small silver mirror and some platinum coins, which Vael took.

Heading west, the large group went through a door, saw some double doors to the south, but continued west through a single door into a cobwebby corridor.  Vael was suspicious of spiders, but didn't see any.  Michael eventually bravely walked right through the webs toward a door on the north wall, but as he approached it a previously unseen glyph on the floor glowed purple, and Michael ran away to the east.  Vael gave Michael a few minutes to get it together, then Levitated over to the glyph.  It went off even though he didn't touch it, but Vael was able to override the magical fear and open the door.

The room beyond the door contained an old rotted bed with a rotted corpse in it, and a pedestal holding a large ball of arcanum.  There were also some shelves, but Vael was drawn to the arcanum and started investigating it.  He decided to cast Analyze Magic, but when he touched the globe of arcanum, the body rose from the best and ran over to stop him.  Vael dropped his backpack and retreated while yelling for help.  Michael responded, and this time managed to pass the fear glyph.  Michael, Uvash, and Ioannes chopped up the undead creature.  Once it was down, Ioannes went back in the hallway and gathered up their rescued prisoners and cast Bravery on all of them, then herded them all past the glyph into the room.

Vael resumed casting the Analyze Magic spell that had been interrupted, but after about ten minutes the thoroughly dismembered corpse of an undead librarian started twitching again.  Vael again suspended his spell and cast Create Fire on the corpse, incinerating it.  That problem eliminated, he went back to analyzing the globe.  After about an hour, he noted that the arcanum could be used to recharge magic items, and had other powers.

Not wanting to spend all day analyzing the arcanum in this dangerous environment, the group decided to escape from the Halls and analyze the globe back at the Arcane Practitioners' Club.  First Vael mentioned using the small pyramid to teleport back to the other small pyramid and then take the goblins down to Gog, but Ioannes reminded him that they had never teleported in that direction and didn't know if it was possible.  They then decided to just fly everyone back up the Well of Light to the surface.  Vael asked Ketil to carry the arcanum globe, and the goblins to take the cauldron again, and they all went north back to the bottom of the Well.  Vael cast Flight on Michael again, and he flew up and down the well many times, carrying either somebody or some heavy piece of loot on each trip.  After ten trips up and down, everyone was at the top.  The three goblins had run off in the commotion, but they left the magic cauldron.

The group and their remaining followers headed south through the ruins then west to the dam, where they had a wheelbarrow stashed.  They put the arcanum and cauldron in the wheelbarrow, then continued south to the Long Stair.  About a third of the way down, Marco the Beastmen said goodbye and went into the secret door into the Great Cavern.  At the bottom of the cliff, Egrk waved goodbye and headed west.  Ketil the Wiskin ranger went back to Gosterwick with the party, and helped push the wheelbarrow.

GM's Comments:

I was surprised the PCs chose the Well of Light, as the line of retreat relies heavily on magical flight, but they managed to get in, kill some baboons and an undead librarian, find a big honking globe of arcanum, and get out.

Achievements:

• The Rescuers: 1 XP for rescuing 3 goblins, Egrk, Ketil, and Marco

XP:

• Exploration: 7 new locations,  1 XP
• Loot: Magic cauldron, a few coins and gems, and a big ball of arcanum.  2 XP if they sold the arcanum.  They kept it, so 1 XP.
• Achievements: 1 XP
• Total: 3 XP

Next Week:

Ioannes expressed interest in finding the Library of Thoth and moving Stamelis there.  So there's a chance they will attempt that.  There was also continued griping about Plumthorn's Halflings being in the way of wherever they want to go, so maybe they'll try removing them.

DFRPG Arden Vul Session 17: Cleaning Out the Vermin

Date: 

Demmasday, 4th of Masporios, 2993 AE 

Weather: 

Hot, dry

Player Characters: 

Vallium Halcyon, Archontean fighter (Greybrown)

Thronebreaker (Thrainor Ironvein), Dwarven mercenary fighter (Martin)

Chrysalis (Lasselanta Ashcroft), Half-Elven mercenary martial artist (Archon Shiva)

Significant NPCs:

Several giant centipedes

Many large spiders

Zombie porter

3 Stone monkeys

Lankios, very old hermit

Carcass creeper

Many Stirges

2 Baboon skeletons

Dust monster

With Vael, Uvash, Michael, and Ioannes all busy, Vallium decided to hire the same pair of Grudge Brigade mercenaries as last time, and explore more of the ruined basement that Jost had showed them.  They brought a wheelbarrow full of food as trade goods.  It was a hot dry day, so footing was good on the Long Stair, and they did not encounter anything of note on the way to the ruins.  They continued north through the ruins of Arden Vul, past the Obilisk of the Sun, through the Forum, past the creepy square tower, to the ruined building west of the Pyramid of Thoth.

They headed down the stairs into the ruined basement, initially leaving the wheelbarrow behind.  The stairs entered a large rectangular room with the roof supported by columns, with debris and trash all over the floor, along with a couple of relatively fresh bodies.  Vallium first circled the room to find the exits, then came back to search the corpses.  Both had necrotic skin and some bite marks.  One wore scale armor and the other had mail, and one was clutching a potion that looked magic.  They stripped off the armor and took the potion, then went back up the stairs to get the wheelbarrow, and left it just behind the stairs, with the armor inside.

There were double doors in the north center of the room where Vallium remembered running past some giant centipedes, so instead they went to the northwest corner of the room, where there were doors north and west.  They listened to both doors and heard noises to the west, so went north.  A short passage led to a relatively clear room, containing an anvil with a silver chalice on it.  This looked suspicious, but after some discussion Stonebreaker knocked the chalice off the anvil with his axe, and nothing interesting happened, so Vallium took the chalice and put it in the wheelbarrow.

Continuing north, they listened at another door, heard nothing, and opened it.  Inside was a dusty room with Thothian frescoes on all the walls and a large stone altar.  There were what looked like barefoot human footprints in the dust.  Vallium searched the altar and though he found a hidden compartment.  He tried opening it and a needle flashed out, but he moved his hands away in time.  All three adventurers looked for a way to open the compartment without smashing it (because they were afraid of damaging whatever was inside), but didn't find one.  They left the alter for another time.

Farther north, they found another room containing a dead halfling, with leather armor, a shortsword, a sling, a pouch with some spikes and a flask of oil, and a note about using a little pyramid to access the Howling Caves.  They found another room with its door spiked just slightly ajar.  Inside were a ridiculously heavy magic spear with some Mithric writing on it that Chrysalis couldn't quite puzzle out, along with a pouch with some coins and small green gems. They took everything and again carried it all back to the entrance room to stow it in their wheelbarrow.

While crossing the entrance room, Vallium spotted several giant centipedes, which had squeezed between the not-quite-closed the doors to the north.  A brief fight ensued, where all the centipedes were quickly killed.

They next decided to try the western door that they had bypassed before.  As they did, some large spiders tried to jump on Vallium's head, but he saw them and jumped back.  The spiders swarmed out and surrounded the three adventurers.  This led to a fairly long fight, where Chysalis parried a lot of spider bites with her two staves, while the three adventurers gradually killed the spiders.  The spiders were good at dodging, but bad at surviving once they got hit.  Once the spiders were eliminated, Vallium (wearing the Ring of Free Action) waded into their room through their webs looking for treasure, while Chrysalis and Thronebreaker rested and guarded outside.  Vallium quickly found a book written in a weird language that nobody even recognized, and later found a small red gem.  Chrysalis wondered if there might be more treasure in the webs, so asked Thronebreaker to cast Seek Earth for both silver and gold.  Both pointed back to the wheelbarrow, so they were satisfied that there was nothing else in the webs.

Continuing to explore, the group went north then east then south, again avoiding the double doors where they suspected there might be more centipedes.  They first found an old storeroom full of only junk and debris.  They then found another storeroom, this one containing a single zombie wearing a dog collar.  They were prepared for a fight, but then surprised when the zombie merely walked up to Vallium and didn't attack him.  Attempts at conversation were fruitless, but the zombie doggedly followed Vallium around.  Eventually they took the zombie's collar, and it didn't resist.  Chrysalis suggested putting a backpack on the zombie, but Vallium declined.  Eventually they decided to leave the zombie in the room and close the door so it wouldn't follow them.

They continued south, to the other side of the double doors, but didn't see any centipedes.  Vallium fully opened a stuck door so they could get out that way without having to squeeze through.  They then continued east, and saw some light coming under the door, along with the foul stench of rotting vegetation.  The door had a lock on it, which looked recently oiled.  Vallium knocked on the door, but nobody answered.  He opened the door, which was unlocked.  Inside was a room that wasn't fully of trash, and had actually been swept.  On the far wall was a pot containing some horrible-smelling stew, over a magical heating tripod.  There were also a few vermin corpses arranged on the walls to dry.  They looked around a bit, but whoever lived there wasn't home, so they left.

They continued east then north, found doors north and west, and didn't hear anything behind either.  They opened the western door and saw a room containing a stone pedestal with a statue of a money on it, with its oversized mouth wide open.  A few seconds after they entered the room, the monkey coughed loudly at Thronebreaker, who was not affected.  At that point they saw a second monkey statue flying to the west, with huge eyes.  The second monkey looked at Vallium, and fire shot out of its eyes and tried to burn him, but failed to penetrate his armor.  Vallium wrestled the first monkey to turn its mouth away from Thronebreaker and stop the attacks, then started smashing it against the pedestal.  Meanwhile Chrysalis went over to the flying monkey and knocked it out of the air with her staff.  A third, previously unseen, flying monkey, this one with huge ears, flew near Thronebreaker and let loose a loud shriek.  He hit it with a Power Blow and shattered it.  Vallium smashed the non-flying statue against the pedestal again, then Chrysalis and Thronebreaker joined in with their weapons, and all the monkey statues were no longer a threat.  Vallium picked up a bone scroll case from the floor.  There was also a corpse on the floor, with its ears bleeding.  Vallium took a gold ring, some leather armor, and a small ingot off the body, and they returned to the wheelbarrow to stow their loot.

Continuing west from the monkey room, they listened to another door and heard nothing.  The door was stuck closed, but Vallium muscled it open.  He went into another room to search the debris, but once he disturbed something, the ceiling started caving in.  He charged back out the door before any debris landed on his head.  The cave-in continued for a while, leaving that room impassable.

Going back east to a door they had bypassed, they found a room with a pool of smelly sludge and a female corpse, this one with no armor.  She looked drained, as if by a strix.  They ignored the sludge, but looted the body, getting a dagger, a bag of gold dust, and a scroll that Chrysalis said was Detect Magic.  Going west from the sludge pool room, they found a door, behind which they heard crunching sounds.  Everyone got ready, then they opened the door and charged in.  They failed to surprise a large many-tentacled creature that was noisily eating a human body.  It attacked Vallium a few times with tentacles and bites, but he parried and blocked and dodged, and then it was three on one.  They knocked the creature unconscious within a few seconds, then Vallium stabbed it a lot to ensure it never woke up.  The half-eaten corpse had some mail, a broadsword,  and a pouch with a few coins and a map.  The map showed several rooms, and had notes in Archontean like "secret?" and "short jerks."  

Once again they carried all the loot back to their wheelbarrow.  On the way, they ran into a barefoot old man who looked like he hadn't shaved or bathed in a years.  He introduced himself as Lankios, and invited them back to his room to talk.  He offered some of his (foul-smelling) stew, which they initially declined.  A long and rambling conversation ensued, where Lankios claimed to have been one of the former leaders of Adrienic's expedition, and said something about a crime where someone named K killed someone named Guivrel.  The story didn't make a lot of sense.  He also warned them about the nearby vermin.  Vallium asked if he wanted to go back to town, but Lankios declined, saying he needed to remain here until the crime was solved, but he wasn't as good at going up and down ladders as he used to be.  Vallium donated their extra food to Lankios, and ate a bit of his foul stew.

Vallium thought they had explored most of the level except for the stirge-infested area to the north, and suggested they try to run past the stirges into the other rooms there then slam the door, rather than fighting a possibly huge number of stirges.  They successfully managed to run past the stirges into a room to the northeast, with a few parries and blocks required.  Once they closed the door behind Thronebreaker, they looked around and saw that the eastern wall had collapsed, but there were some legs sticking out, and there was one boot on one of the feet.  Chrysalis and Thronebreaker thought the boot looked magic, so Vallium and Thronebreaker tried moving stones while Chrysalis pulled the body out.  The single boot was all they managed to get though.

Thronebreaker thought there was another door nearby to the southwest and it was open, but Vallium remembered it as closed.  In any case, they decided to repeat their trick of running to the other door past the stirges then shutting it to keep them out.  Thronebreaker was correct and the door was open, so this was pretty easy; they only had to parry a couple of stirge attacks to get inside.  The room contained four stone vats, one empty, one with water, one with some foul-smelling rancid former food of some sort, and one with lamp oil.  They didn't need any water or oil, so they left.  This time, they sprinted north, toward the stairs that they came up last time.  The stairs spiraled down a few hundred feet, into a square room with no obvious exits.  They walked through the illusory wall to the west, into a room with an open wooden door south, a closed stone door south, and a closed wooden door west.

They listened to the closed doors, heard nothing, and went west.  The room there contained two animated skeletons of baboons, who attacked.  Vallium shield rushed it and it went down hard, as if particularly brittle to crushing damage.  Chrysalis smashed the other one with her staff and it fell to pieces.  The only semi-intact furniture in the room was a single cupboard, which contained a few pieces of parchment with Mithric writing that Chrysalis could not puzzle out.

The stone door to the south did not have a handle and they could not figure out a way to open it.  Thronebreaker pulled out his portable battering ram, enlisted Vallium to help, and powered up Power Blow.  Together they smashed it for enough damage to shatter the door.  They proceeded south down a passage, through a normal wooden door, into a mostly empty room containing an old wooden desk and chair covered in gold leaf.  Gold is gold, as the dwarves say, so the three of them spent the next fifteen minutes painstakingly removing gold leaf and putting it in a pouch.  Thronebreaker then noticed a few flakes the others had missed and spent a couple more minutes making sure absolutely no gold was left behind.

They went through a door east into a room with a couple of inches of dust on the floor, and some bright orange light coming through peepholes near some large bronze double doors to the south.  As they searched the room, some of the dust formed into a miniature tornado, which attacked them.  The wind blew them around enough that Chrysalis and Thronebreaker had a hard time keeping their bearings, but Vallium's magic ring left him unaffected.  The three of them took turns bashing the dust creature, but their blows only did minimal damage, so it took a long time to beat it down.  It failed to injure any of them, however.  When it finally went down, they dumped some water on its remains, which seemed to finish it off.  Searching the room revealed a magic halberd and a human corpse.  The body had a gold signet ring with "Gregor" inscribed, a magic potion, and a flask of water.

At that point, Vallium declared that they had found enough treasure and he did not want to press their luck further by opening any more doors.  So they went back up the stairs, then tried sprinting past the stirges again.  This time, about a half-dozen were waiting for them, and one managed to bite Thronebreaker.  It was only a minor wound, and then they were past the stirge lair.  They continued back to their wheelbarrow, dragged it up the stairs, and headed back south across the ruins, down the Long Stair, and then back to Gosterwick.

Once back in town, Thronebreaker discovered he was feeling awful: the minor stirge bite was starting to give him a nasty case of Stirge Fever.  Not wanting to unnecessarily spend any of his hard-earned gold on a cleric, he sat at home, counting his money, and waiting for his strong dwarven immune system to fix the problem.

GM's Comments:

Three-player sessions move faster than four- or five-player sessions, and in this case one of the PCs was clearly in charge and the other two were working for him, so it was fun to watch people make quick decisions and methodically explore a level.

Achievements:

• None

XP:

• Exploration: 18 new locations, good for 1 XP
• Loot: magic spear, magic halberd, lots of valuable weapons and armor, etc., good for 2 XP
• Total:  3 XP

Next Week:

We should have more PCs next time.  Maybe they'll try to finish off the stirges, or the halflings, or something else.