Jan 2012 Recap

January Recap (46-47)

Black Swarm of insects heading North towards the Dwarven Kingdom. The Goblin/Elven War is still going on, but it is rumored that many Elves died in the first battles. They returned to Namh and it seemed like the defenses were set up correctly. He elevated one of the Militia men to Sergeant. Barnabas was his name. He was paid by Grunka and was given 50 Gold to keep the Militia in shape, and to make sure they were kept in line. “Her High Generalness” said that she would be back to check on his work. Barnabas told them of several murders in town, where all of the victims were missing their heads. Ogden & Palmer (engraver and jewelsmith) both died in the murders, and Yetta a random townsfolk all died. The Mayor looked into it, but he never found anyone.

They went to talk to the Mayor. They managed to scare one of the Mayor’s kids by telling them of the murders. They then talked to one of his older daughters. The Mayor told them of other swarms of insects. There were no tracks associated with the murders. They were told that the Goblin Tribes had unified for the first time in 200 years to go attack the Elves.

They talked to a husband of one of the recently slain women that happened while they were talking to the Mayor. Wendy was the name of the slain woman. They went to the murder scene and then followed the very strange clues and were slowly tracking the murderer back into town from the outskirts of it. The trail lead them up on the roofs of several buildings. They learned that one of the houses in Nahm used to have a wizard in there that used to perform strange rites and experiments.

They returned back to their homes that were given to them by the Mayor, and they found the 4 heads there. One of the heads was hanging in the window, as if it was set up so that people would see it. They found a single large foot print lined with blood. Outside they found another boot track, but it was mostly covered by stones. This was in front of the Inn, and they asked if he saw anyone in front, but all he saw was an elderly couple of the townsfolk. The trail looked like it was heading towards the Temple. Stinky smelled the foot print and then he followed the trail. Stinky lead them towards the Temple. Gronn the one-eyed ogre was outside, but he said that he didn’t see anyone enter or leave the Temple.

They discovered that Ur-Masha was the murderer. Stinky smelled the boots and confirmed that it was him. During the battle they learned that Ur-Masha was a Liche. During the battle Grunka was slain by the Lich with a touch of death. After a hard fought fight and a brutal hit from the holy warhammer, snakes poured out of the body of Ur-Masha/Lekorh and then the snakes turned into mist. This mist traveled North towards Darves Hill. They then realized that the Lich Lekorh knows a lot about their party and what their goals are.

They told the town that Ur-Masha was possessed by a Lich, and that he was responsible for the murders. The whole town showed up at the Temple to see the evidence, and the Mayor was thankful for them finding the murderer and revealing the true nature of the “Priest.” The townsfolk gave the Heroes of Nahm many small items and coins in thanks.

The group looted the Temple to a certain degree, but since Metham was the new High Priest there, he didn’t want to remove all of the treasures from there. There were also poisons disguised as healing potions. They gave Grunka a glorious burning as befits the popular religion in the area… and then looted his corpse. 

Brother Joshua was the new recruit, and they informed him of how Grunka & Company did things. They divided up the potions from the Temple, including a potion of Green Dragon Control (after Tim fudged the dice rolls a bit). 

Lots of Cannibals on Level 3… and they learned that the Skull is a beacon of necromantic energy (wawawa noise & green energy). They also seemed to be trapped on Level 3. There was also 4,000 gold stored in the Temple.

Dec 2011 Recap (WAY LATE)

December’s Summary

Video 40

New characters: Dwarf Moorc & Cleric Abraham.

“Grunka & Company” were joined by these new characters Moorc and Abraham, who had heard of their exploits and sought them out to partake in the glory that was theirs. The group was anxious to get down to the Arena where they had placed a certain cursed item (the black skull chime of cannibalism) and so they started out. They planned out a course of action, using Old Manx’s maps to try to get down to the Arena through unexplored areas.

They worked their way into a long moist corridor and the doors were covered with moss and fungus. Thimple listened at the door and a puff of foul spores flew out at him. He acquired Skin Rot or Mummy Rot from it, and his Charisma took a hit. Cyr then burned away the fungus and moss with a torch, and scraped the residue off so that he could listen at the door.

They heard the sounds of flesh smacking against flesh, and possibly muddy water, but it was hard to tell with an old wooded door between them and the sound. Metham’s holy warhammer glowed brightly, and he warned that Undead lurked beyond. The Clerics prepared to hold up their holy symbols to turn the foul things.

In the back of the room they saw a glass case on top of a pedestal, and in front of the door. There was also moss and fungus on all of the doors. The floor of the muddy room was broken through and had a depression in it that was filled with muddy water and the writhing forms of the Undead. Metham with his piety in his god turned two of the filthy things. The other four of them started climbing the muddy slope towards the door where the characters were standing. Stinky (the melted face blood sniffing Quasit Demon) was sent off to help attack the Ghouls.

Video 41

They threw holy water into the Ghoul Pit to great success. Splash damage is nice. The Cleric Metham tried to slide down into the pit with his undead slaying hammer... and stuck headfirst into the opposite muddy side. The Cleric pops out of the side of the pit wall, and looks like he had a mud facial. Eventually they destroy all of the undead.

There was an undead animated hand in a glass case that had a signet ring of an eagle on it. Metham smashed the case and the animated hand was running around the muddy pit. Some of the group wanted to destroy the hand and others wanted to keep it. In the end Stinky was the one that put the ring on, but he wore it as a wristband. It made him dizzy, but that passed.

42

They realized that there was a trap door above them, but they didn't want to open it since the entire level above them was filled with blood.

In the next room they found a mutant Gnoll with a hideously large head that seemed to have a growth of some sort on it, and this large headed freak was ordering the 7 other Gnolls to attack the group. They stopped fighting, and the Gnolls wanted to get bribes from the party. Instead they just slaughtered them all like dogs.

43

After slaughtering the last group of Gnolls they find another 12 of them in a large room that had a throne in it. Thimple was able to survive the mummy rot on his face, but he is not a very attractive Halfling now... at 4 Cha. :)

44

Two Gnolls knocked one of the Clerics down the stairs, and the group could hear something making noises with a chain on the level below. The group followed the Gnolls down the stairs... and then they ran into a room with a caged and blindfoled reptilian creature, with dull brown scales and a yellow underbelly. They thought this thing was a basilisk. The remaining Gnolls upstairs were slaughtered.

The two Gnolls that ran down the stairs (won the initiative) and then took the blindfold off of the basilisk. SAVE VS. PETRIFY. Thimple failed, Grunka failed, Mescillius failed. So... all of the characters downstairs were turned to stone, and then everyone upstairs ran down after them. Targ was okay, the Cleric turned to stone, and the Dwarf was turned to stone, and Metham was okay. So... Targ and Metham were the only two characters not turned to stone. Stinky the Quasit Demon... managed to save too, and then he pulled the ear of the basilisk around to turn the remaining Gnolls to stone. Stinky then put the blindfold back on the basilisk.

The remaining characters that weren't turned to stone, dragged out the remaining statues/characters. Larm was the closest known city and it was in the west, where they hoped to find a high powered wizard that could cast a Stone to Flesh spell.

45

What was kind of ironic about the characters being turned to stone, was that they were carving statues of the heroes in the center of the town of Nahm. They used the teleport circles that were in two of the outside buildings to help move the statues down the hill and they got the cart and took them back to town. Then they headed to Larm.

They contacted a Mage's Guild in the city of Larm. They agreed to turn all of the statues back to flesh, to the relief of everyone. They learned that the guy stuck in the emerald was an ancient spellcaster that was stolen from the Mage's Keep. They also identified some of the group's mysterious magic items.

The Mage's took a step back when Cyr took out his coin, and they told him it was an ancient artifact. They believed that this artifact was made when the two higher deities were worshiped instead of the younger gods. They also felt that there are two souls trapped in the artifact coin; the souls of twin girls. They told him it was an ancient holy thing that possesses much power. The artifact is Bane vs. Demons.

They also learned that the Elves did not fair well when the Goblins massacred them. All of the tribes of Goblins got together and nearly wiped out the Elven civilization. The Goblins have set up shop in the Elven homelands.

They were told to be on the lookout for a simple mirror with a mithril exterior, and to contact them if they found it. The Mages gave them an egg, that could be used to summon a magical bird. They were told it was a lot faster than a carrier pigeon to contact them. They told them they would get around 5,000 GP for the item if they found it.

They learned that Stinky had a ring (wristband for him) that has a malevolent spirit in it that can aid the wearer.

Oct 2011 Recap (WAY LATE)

I think I lost Sept's Summary...  Here is Oct 2011.

October’s Summary

There was a bit of background noise for the first half of this session, but when all of the other gamers went home it got a lot quieter.

Two new recruits (and one new player Christopher): Claude the Wizard, and Harrison the Fighter stumbled upon the group of adventurers and had heard of their exploits and wanted to join their group. There was some discussion about the campaign so far, and how they have been progressing through the megadungeon. They also talked about some of their standard operating procedures.

They heard some mucus-ladened voices that they had heard the last time they encountered some Troglodytes. They kicked in the door and they were ambushed by the Troglodytes but the attacks missed by a mile. The smell was horrible and assailed their nostrils in the enclosed room. Thimple killed off one with his sacrificial dagger of Baenur, and the other one gave up but then Thimple slaughtered him from behind in a very quick and painless fashion.

They found a fancy looking carpet with stuff on the inside of it. They unrolled it and it was 20’ by 10’ in size. The group was unrolling the carpet in a very tactical and careful fashion. They found a dark Elf but all of the moisture seemed to have been removed from the body, so it looked like a human-like raisin. Dust and dried skin particles filled the air when they removed the body from the carpet. They found a bastard sword, a wand, and some jewelry around her neck, as the body turned out to be a female. The wand had an emerald on one side and a ruby on the other side. It had 10 flat edges that ran the length of it. It had a name on the side of the sword that said Glorious Blood in the ancient tongue. Thimple received a message from his sacrificial dagger about what the sword did. The wand turned out to have the Knock spell cast into it. Claude the Wizard put on the necklace and seemed to improve in his looks, and had a lot more confidence it seemed. He also informed them that enemy spellcasters would have a difficult in affecting him with spells.

The group was looking forward to going down deep into the dungeon to see what their Skull Chime of Cannabalism did in the arena, but they wanted to wait for awhile to let the effects take their toll first.

They rolled up the Troglodyte in the fancy carpet and all of the water was removed from the body. The Carpet of Dehydration was what it was then named. When they hit the Troglodyte it turned into dust, and a key fell out of it. They picked up the key and they discussed what they were going to do with the red, blue, and black lined carpet. The carpet also seems to stay completely clean.

The saw a giant sphere of green glass and it filled the entire room. A smaller black sphere was rolling around inside of it in seemingly random directions. An oil lamp was hanging from the ceiling and it was the only light. “Lekorh, Lekorh, Lekorh” was written on the wall in blood. A grotesque looking demon figure popped into visibility and startled Harrison and Claude and it was perched on Cyr’s shoulder. This was of course Stinky the Quasit Demon, and Cyr’s Coin seemed to be repelled by the sphere slightly.

They saw a small slit in the side of the sphere, but it took them awhile to figure out that they could put their newly acquired key into it. The black sphere inside seemed to be moving faster now that they characters were in the room. Stinky disappeared when the group tried to get him to put his finger in the keyhole, he didn’t like the looks of it. Stinky handed the key to Cyr.

Cyr put the key into the sphere and the outer green sphere opened up, and the smaller black sphere rolls to your feet and starts spinning. The black sphere was 6” in diameter and it followed Cyr (since he put the key in the keyhole). The weird thing was that when it rolled on the rocky ground it made absolutely no sound. Stinky the Quasit Demon seemed to be terrified by the sphere. Before leading the room they grabbed what they thought was an oil lamp, but it seemed to be a small magical glowing creature that was trapped in there. Cyr tried to put his coin near the black sphere but he could only force it to about 6 inches away before he couldn’t force it any closer. Cyr climbed up the wall and the sphere rolled over to the wall and then followed him up the wall, defying gravity.

The next Troglodytes they fought were using poison tipped weapons and were looking for blood. They were all slain brutally by the magical weapons of the party. They figured out that whoever owns the key, controls the sphere. They also learned that if the sphere doesn’t have an owner (by setting the key down) it returns to its green sphere.

They went to another room that was filled with tons of mushrooms and what they thought was a leg. They found three 20 year old males laying face down in the mushrooms, and they seemed to be half submerged in the mushrooms. When they dragged one of the bodies out they realized that the mushrooms had grown into the person’s face, and stomach. They looked like they needed more help than the party could give them.

They learned that the mushroom covered naked human was born a slave down in the Slave Pits which was located somewhere deep down in the dungeon. They also dragged out the other two humans from the mushroom room.

They found an exit to the surface from the 2^nd level of the dungeon that went up to one of the buildings up on the surface. The humans were really pale, and they had never been out on the surface of the world. The sky and the lights in the sky scared them. When they peeked out of the building they saw that the large Green Dragon had returned and was curled around the Temple at the top of Darves Hill. The Dragon had lots of fresh wounds and scars so they assumed it was possibly off fighting something. They joked about using the Carpet of Dehydration to turn the Dragon’s tail into dust.

The slaves were a bit unsure of what to do with freedom, and they told the group that they had been mushroom farmers for their slavemaster. Cyr pointed out that it was rather ironic that they were mushroom farmers and now had mushrooms growing out of their skin. They also told the group that the Fungal Dryad had bought them to feed her mushrooms, and also to feed the Troglodytes.

The group then traveled back to the town of Nahm so that they could try to help out their newly freed slave friends.

Nahm seemed to be getting back to normal. They went to the Temple and talked with Ur-Masha. They presented the three free slaves to him and asked for his wisdom. He told them it would take awhile and that they could start here. They were surprised that there were no mushroom farms in the area. Grunka gave them some gold to start their own business.

Ur-Masha said that the sphere was a Mordenkainen’s Sphere. He said it was some sort of protective device for the owner against magic but he wasn’t sure what it did exactly. Claude the Wizard cast Magic Missile at Cyr and the missiles were sucked into the black sphere.

The group cursed Ordok Throon since he left without a trace and took everything that was in the chainmail bag of holding. The group then redistributed some of their hand-me-down equipment to the new recruits and hoped that they might get a discount at the local stores since they helped fend off the Goblin hordes.

The group noticed some swirling clouds that seemed to be around Darves Hill. The group named the three freed slaves after mushroom species because they had no names, and didn’t understand the concept. Shitake, Portabella, and Kerminee were their names. They left for the hill and camped out in some light woods by a creek, and through the night they heard the Dragon flying overhead many times.

In the morning they saw that the swirling pattern of clouds is about a 10 mile radius, and there were light rains. They had to sneak past the sleeping Dragon to get below to where they were before. It took them some time but they got back down to Level 2.

All of the doors were kicked in previously in the area they checked first, and they saw some old blood stains and torn up sacks and bags. Several more rooms seemed like they were ransacked several weeks previous, and they saw some prints in the blood.

The next door they went to seemed like it was kicked in only to set off a deadly trap. They guessed that the person or thing that kicked in the door died, and then something else came along and ate their remains.

The next room had a false door that was a nasty trap that included a large spiked ball, but they managed to figure it out before it killed anyone. They found a few bloody gems beneath the trap as well set on the trigger for the trap.

They walked past the plant that was on the stairs down to Level 3 and they were attacked by flying barbs that were shot out of its blossoms. As they left the room a small rust brown dragon-like creature was sitting in the hallway and looked up in their general direction. It was 2’ long and about a 1’ tall at its shoulders. Grunka approached the creature with jerky and fed the creature. It singed the meat first and then devoured it. It kept sniffing for more meat.

They eventually found out that this creature was a pseudodragon THAT WAS VERY HUNGRY! It ripped open Grunka’s backpack to get at the jerky. They were pretty sure that this creature was the one that probably ate the dead bodies.

The pseudodragon then lunged off of the back of Grunka and then began to smell Claude’s spellbook and wand. It seemed to be interested in the magic-user over the other characters. It ate some of Claude’s hair and almost knocked him over as it crawled up on his back.

They began to hear grinding noises from the next room, but they weren’t sure what it might be. The door was locked. They saw a Minotaur in the room sharpening a huge sword on a grinding wheel, and they also saw some weapons hanging in the room.

Grunka and Harrison charged into the room… only to fall face first into a trap that was an illusionary floor trap. The Minotaur then chucked his huge sword through the air and nailed Claude right in the chest. It wound have killed him outright if he hadn’t been wearing the amulet. Claude is healed but he has a huge sword through him.

They threw Targ through the air out of the hole with the goal of having him attack the Minotaur, but he missed by about 5 feet. Thimple shot him from across the pit with a shortbow. Harrison then bravely went up toe to toe with the Minotaur and slashed him across the chest. It was a brutal battle that nearly almost killed off several of the characters.

Most of the weapons on the wall were too large to wield, and they believed that all of them were masterwork weapons. They also found some cure serious wounds potions. They also found 3,000 gps worth of stuff in the room as well such as gems, gold, silver, etc. 

We skipped Nov 2011.