Played
8 December 2011 at Waves during a Meetup with the Vancouver Roleplayers Collective.
This session was played concurrently with session 81: Citadel of Evil.
Featuring:
Bonspiel, priest of the dead god Kor, and his retainer Kronen.
Carter, another veteran of Koralgesh.
Dreg, a dwarf raised by humans.
Griswald, cousin of the famous adventurer Columbo.
And Mustafa the Mountain, a Fighting Man.
Summary
Adventurers form an alliance with frog men, do battle with cave men and survive their foray into Fortress Eibon (mostly).
Under Fortress Eibon
Accompanied by the veteran mercenary Mustafa (his, much more detailed and entertaining version of events is here) the party travels through the wasteland to Fortress Eibon. They enter the south sally port and after a quick look at Griswald's maps, avoid the well, the rope dangling from a nearby tower, the so-called "Stables of Death" and settle on a western door that leads to a room with a big post, where there are stairs leading down.
Failed Save vs Poison, Dignity
The party avoids sections of a sprawling catacomb with obvious signs of prior adventurers (ie vandalism) and crawls around some narrow passages until Bonspiel sets off a poison dart trap. The details are of no concern to anyone, but suffice to say that Kor teaches hard lessons to his priests and those downwind of said priests. In the aftermath, Kronen earned his rations by cleaning Bonspiel's soiled platemail and Bonspiel is reminded of dungeoneering rule #152: Don't Put On Random Pants You Found in a Crypt.
Man-eating Boulders
Deeper in the catacombs, Griswald is attacked by some sort of predatory boulders. Mustafa and Griswald make short work of the foes despite being hampered by the low ceiling and their companion Carter's threats to shoot arrows into the fray. Dreg, ever the efficiency expert, takes the opportunity to loot several nearby rooms, netting some decent coin. The party generously gives Mustafa the copper coins, though the canny mercenary stipulates that they do not count against his agreed upon share of the treasure. Bonspiel begins to suspect that although a capable warrior, Mustafa must have minored in contract law at Hairy Fighting Man college.
Clan of the Cave Frog
Down another flight of stairs the party finds a series of dank caverns. Thuggish frog people emerge from the slick caves, armed with primitive spears and accost the adventurers in their horrible croaking tongue. Claret appears to be immanent when Griswald somehow manages to make sense of the frog tongue and quickly offers to eliminate any of their nearby enemies as a token of everlasting friendship.
The frogs are so impressed that their spokesfrog Bogogadagog volunteers to show the party the way to the "hairy ones", a rival tribe of cave-dwellers, and fight alongside them. On the way, the sharp-eyed Dreg finds platinum and silver hidden among some slimy pools and manages to abscond with the coins without Bogogadagog noticing.
When Bad Things Happen to Neutral People
Kronen and Dreg prepare to lob flasks of oil into the lair of some cavemen, but are ambushed by two of the filthy cretins. A blow from one of their crude morningstars takes off Kronen's arm and he falls to the rock floor… smashing the lit flask of oil in his other hand. The rest of the party presses the attack while Bonspiel attempts to do something for his fallen retainer. Unfortunately "something" turns out to be "accidentally pulls off his burning head".
Griswald and Mustafa are both near death by the end, but the party triumphs thanks to some tactical maneuvering and a few well-timed strikes by Carter and Dreg once their superior numbers can be brought to bear. The party retreats to the surface with their winnings and a promise of friendship from the frog people… who by the way revere a Chaotic being named Tsathoggua. So that's a promise you can bank on.
The frogs may have also told Griswald to watch out for some Vulture Demons who live in the Northwest tower.
Total Losses/Loot
Kronen died.
This line is important for posterity: All PCs received 451xp and 427gp. Mustafa received 225xp and 427gp, plus some copper pieces nobody could be bothered to carry. The frogs took 100sp and 500cp.
DM was Planet Algol.
The best part was when he had to stop writing cuz his kids were fighting.
Ah, children.
Heh, yeah that was funny. All done now! When are you going to write up the other simul-session?
Chris
Vancouver Red Box: a site for old school D&D
So do I still get 100xp for this? Or in Bonspiel's case, 90?
Chris
Vancouver Red Box: a site for old school D&D
Yeah, of course (ha ha, 90).
Yeah, for a guy whose top stat is Intelligence, you'd think he'd have picked a better career. On the other hand, he's alive and within sight of level 5.
If that didn't jinx him, nothing will.
Chris
Vancouver Red Box: a site for old school D&D