Thursday, January 30, 2020

4 - The Broken Shield delivers!



Date
The 22nd of Reaping, a Thursday.

Players
Karen - Fighter - Level 1
Harley - Halfling - Level 1
Melark - Magic User - Level 1

Hirelings
(all played by PC's)
Nargax the heavy footman (second expedition), an army vet, ramrod straight
Gygar the light footman. (second expedition)
Werdic the heavy footman (second expedition), last survivor of a murder spree in his monastery.
The Broken Shield - Mercenary company of 6 heavy footmen with special tactics: Wade, Jax, Louis, Oscar, Templeton, Hanibal


Adventure Log
The Silver Swan was mostly still asleep while the party trotted over to the Hurling Heiffar with Melark, now recovered from the dysentary of his encounter with the Wizards Supper Club three weeks earlier, but with Charlie nowhere to be seen. The Heiffar was in full swing already at 8am; their heavy time being the evenings when expeditions get back through early morning when they leave again. Nargax, Werdic, and Gygar were hired for another day. Also hired were a company of heavy footman: The Broken Shield. Specializing in group tactics, they were expensive but the party rationalized they would be able to tackle the stirred by reptilemen in the Bleakmarsh if they were hired.

Leaving the town gates, Ed the gate guard was happy to see them again and inquired about their friend they brought in a few days ago. Clancy said they wouldn't come back and he was dumb to let them in but he knew they would come back! He asked how much treasure they had brought in on all of those large sacks of coins Stickyfingers was laying on and Karen told him 500cp. The tax being 5sp, a clerk came out and gave them an official receipt with wax seal and entered the details in to the log. Enquiring further of Ed, it seems that a personal retinue of the kings taxmen showed up in town about three weeks ago, there being rumors that the local nobility, the Malvoys in the castle up on the hill, had not been as diligent as they could have been. As they left, his buddy Clancy tore in to him, asking him why he had to be like that, chatting up everyone who passed through ... Passing by Franks place they were verbally assaulted by him, wanting a SP to clean up the blood, vomit, and shit that their friend left the last time they were there. They talked him down to 4cp, and were almost sold a fresh locally sourced heirloom beet for the price of 1sp, about 100 times what it was worth. Oh to be rich and have no concept of how much money is actually worth!

They hit the sinkhole after a large cloud of mist erupted. At the bottom they found the body of the older boy (~12) they had escorted out a couple of days ago. He had been gnawed upon. They had no idea why he was there.

They explored north, finding a wondrous site: a waterfall that was flowing backwards, water crashing from a pool in to the ceiling and flowing out through a gap 30' above! Karen took a look in to the water, it was too deep to see in to and the shore dropped away quickly. [Side note: good lighting effects in Marengo cave in Missouri create weird optical illusions with the water. A must see!] As she looked in she saw some eyes. Attached to a GIANT frog. Who surfaced. And breathed gas on her, she being evidently momentarily stunned in to not reacting to all of the warning signs like: you see eyes, attached to a giant frog, that surfaces, and opens it's mouth. It's tongue snapped out and attached to her, dragging her in to the pool! Not to worry though, The Broken Shield sprung in to action! Templeton and Wade run up and grabbed Karen by the shoulders, dragging her back while the other four, in a synchronized ballet, ran run, surrounded the frog, and stabbed in unison, killing it! Hiring these guys was starting to see like a good idea! Harley stripped off his armor and a rope was tied to him, a couple of people holding it, while the hirelings spread out to guard the many exits from the room ... including two on either side of the pool that sloped down quite steeply ... Harley jumped in, and swam UP the waterfall, surveying the passage above, it being not really workable to explore further. He dived back down in to the pool, and saw a small chest in the water! They got it out with rope after he dove in again, finding it sealed with wax! Just then, Gygar yelled out "Something coming up from down below!" Two pale looping humanoids, covered in sores, leaped upon Gygar, knocking him down! One clawed at his chest, ineffectually while the second ended up knocking the first off his chest! The entire group surround them and quickly dispatched them, but Gygar had been hurt bad. He was still up, but only had 1hp left. He soldiered on! The small coffer went in to a Karens backpack.

Traveling south, and west, they found a cave chamber with a ball of flame that was rolling around on the ceiling of the room, leaving char marks on the ceiling and the tops of the walls. Not being able to figure out how to exploit it, they moved on down a long and wide cave passage leading west. Coming to a crossroads, they found two small children poking some decaying bodies with sticks! It was the other young boy from a few days ago, the brother of the now-dead one, about 8. With him has a 2 year old, his younger brother. After they came home with all the silver their dad sent them back for more. Frankie & Brad were scared, and got separated from their older brother. Could the party help find him? Gygar, being nearly dead, was tasked with escorting them back to the surface, it being only about twenty minutes away ("Just enough time for a wandering monster check", thinks the DM ...)

The west crossroads went on about 200' further, ending in a dead end. The north has a small chamber full of rags and, searching, they found a stone tablet. It had strange creepy writing on it that no one could read, as well as a pictograph of a humanoid being rubbed on by a group of tentacles. Loot! Although they knew not what to do with it. To the south, after another long cave passage, they found a small pool of water, a spring, with small mushrooms growing around it. Huddled up next to it, in a fetal position muttering softly to itself, but a large humanoid covered in verdant green leaves, just like they saw in Monta-town. It was in bad shape, it's nose cut off, scarred by many intricate knife cuts, and deep lash and whip marks. Malark figured out it spoke hobgoblin after Harler calmed it down with food and soft words. It's name was Furby and it escaped a few days earlier from "Salicia", down deeper. It's friends had all been killed in a party Friday night, it then having escaped "Salicia" on Sunday. It had been a slave to the reptilemen and briefly worked as a day laborer at "The Last Resort" a nice place, Furby said, also down deeper. A bar, tavern, etc, run  by a human. They took Furby with them as they continue exploring. They headed back to the entrance room, this part of the cave system being played out.

Only to find, in the entrance room, the bodies of the two young children, and Gygar! They had been butchered, some of their organs and meat being removed as if they were cattle! Oops! (Looks like the DM rolled a 1 on that wandering monster check ...) Before the party was the misty hallway, stretching to the west. With the newfound confidence imparted by the mass of hirelings, they headed that way. Unlike all of the other passages, this was not a cave. It was worked stone, inlaid massive blocks of limestone. 30' tall and 30' wide, the floor worn smooth with countless traffic. They headed in to the mist ... only to find, about 100 feet down it, that the mist was coming from a bubbling pool of water that had formed along a collapsed section of wall/floor. They looked, and saw nothing. The hallway was sloping down a bit, and the mist was, inexplicably, lighter in that direction. They continued.

Another 200' and the massive avenue ended! There were two massive brass doors, inlaid with scenes, to the west, ending the hallway, as well as two smaller normal doors, one to the north and one to the south. The massive doors had art deco fairytale scenes, light woods, meandering streams and creeks, and fairy tale knight from French romances complete with pennants and banners riding their chargers about. There did seem to be an unusual number of bridges in the scenes, and the knights always seemed to be riding towards the bridges in all of the little vignettes. They tried to open the doors and failed. Furby looked horrified; The Citadel of the Dark Masters, he pleaded with them! The decided that wasn't their thing and gave up on the massive doors, instead heading north.

Coming to a T they went west, passing a short side passage that ended in a door. There was some raucous noise coming from behind it, A LOT of creatures being noisy, Malark identifying a few hobgoblin words now and then. The avoided it, continuing west, past a pit trap to turn in the hallway that ended in a room. What a room! In the middle was a suite of plate mail armor on an armor stand and two-handed sword on a stand next to it! More importantly, right the threshold were a Cousin It and a few of the smaller verdant green leaf creatures. All of which were lying in a huge pool of blood, all of them being neatly cut in half. Some experimentation with a 10' pole yielded two 5' poles and the observation that there were some blades that swung from the ceiling, lighting fast and razor sharp, when the threshold was crossed. Karen offered 5gp to any hireling who would crawl under them, since the blades only came down about 2' from the floor. Templeton, from The Broken Shield, accepted the challenge, after some razzing from his buddies. His friends held his beer while he crawled under them, avoiding the blades! He looked back and gave a Thumbs Up sign ... and then a second set of blades were triggered, these being offset away from the first by a few feet! *Schlock* went his hand! He was pulled back and bandaged. "Chicks dig scars!" he noted, while getting many slaps on the back from his Broken Shield buddies. He then crawled BACK in to the room to get his hand, as a momento, coming back again! Everyone in The Broken Shield had a newfound respect for Templeton.

The party went back to the T, again avoiding the noisy creature room. Walking down a short hallway they avoided a tripwire with cans and jars in a net on the ceiling, a crude alarm. Going through the door at the end they say a room with a fountain and two albino rats, normal sized rats, frolicking in it, one having a copper piece in its mouth. The eastern part of the room was full of crates, barrels, and two sets of bunk beds.  Harley and Karen entered further, everyone else huddling around the doorway. Harley say a Cousin It laying on the floor, behind some crates. He tried to parley, but the Cousin It pulled a rope, causing a ceiling note by the fountain to fall, which Harley leapt out of the way of! It jumped up and pulled out a wicked double-bladed battleaxe! Karen and Harley entered combat, killing it almost immediately! And as they did so Nargax, bodyguard of Malark who usually brought up the rear, cried out! Two more were in the hallway behind them! The party entered the room, forming a semicircle around the door, drawing them in, and then slaughtering one! The other made a fighting retreat down the hallway, yelling over his shoulder "Breeyark! Breeyark!" The Broken Shield, advancing down to kill it, yelled out that there was secret door! Killing the Cousin It, they found that the secret door led BACK in to the room they were just in, the Cousin It's using to to get behind the party! Pretty Sneaky Sis!

Going back to the bronze doors, they headed through the south door. Coming to a portcullis, they raised it up. This section, and the northern section, again being of worked stone, unlike the rest of the caves. In fact, this room was COVERED in bas reliefs, every wall surface, showing lizard-like men with elegant features, almost elf-like, frolicking with dinosaurs. They heading out the only exit, to the south. Avoiding a pit, they came to a door the the hallway ended at. They pounded at it HARD but it wouldn't budge a micron. They gave up and returned to the pit, finding that, at the bottom, there was a hallway running east and west. Going west, the came to a room with four statues. Three were of lizard-like men with elegant features, in alcoves on the north, west, and south walls. In the center of the room as a fourth statue, of a small crocodile with yellow eyes in a "pool" of rocks. Harley, searching, found the the western statues could be turned, releasing a secret door behind it. Looking in they saw a small landing and then a VERY steep set of stairs going down. Almost ladder-like in their steepness. They closed the door and headed east from the pit bottom. They came to a set of stairs, going up, that ended in a blank wall. It was obvious there should be a door there, so they searched until they found it. Another room, with an exit on the north, covered in carvings! But this time the lizard-like men looked more reptillian, and were casting spells and using magic while they played with the dinosaurs! Heading through the door they fond another similar room, but they looked even more lizard-like and were casting even more powerful spells. There was also a fist sized orange gem in the middle of the room, taking precautions they retrieved it, Karen noting that looking in to it she could see a raging inferno of fire. And not that "Hearts on Fire" valentine day ring fire either, but a real raging fire! They headed through the north door. More carvings covering the walls. Even more lizard-like and almost no elf features at all. And they were casting VERY powerful spells, like blowing up stars in the sky spells. In fact, they found a secret door behind that scene, opening in to a hallway that full of a pale green mist. It wasn't flammable, but they soon discovered that throwing oil in it and lighting it did cause the mist to burn out somewhat. Karen took a deep breathe and ran the length, 501, crashing through a door at the end! She found a short hallway, with a set of stairs going down on either end.

It now being 6 hours inside, they decided they needed to return to town, since it was getting late and "No one returns from the Bleakmarsh after dark" Karen fell asleep as she returned down the hallway, but was retrieved and slapped awake after ten minutes. They made they way back to the entrance uneventfully, and avoided Frank yelling at them. They had nothing to declare to the gate guards, a cursory search not looking in the backpack with the coffer, and paid 1GP for all of them to enter.

Returning to the Singing Swan, Harley used his local contacts to get in tough with Fast Eddy to unlock the small chest. He was out of place in the Swan, so they went to the alley out back, Eddy unlocking the coffer for them. As he started to open it both Harley and Karen, immediately and in unison, slapped the lid down with Harley dismissing Eddy. Eddy, looking straight at Karen, asked her if she ever had any friends that only wanted her for her pickup truck and didn't want to hang out or even have a beer together after loaning it? Eddy was given an extra gp. Back in their rooms they got ready for a fight and opened it ... finding a MAGNIFICENT delicate gold necklace with HUGE rubies. It had an inscription: To my darling Malvoy, from Aristide." Noting this was the name of the local noble family, they decided they would have to be careful "pawning" it. A quick trip to Drez the Unspeakable's tower, the host for Malarks supper club party a few days earlier, revealed only three members of the local Wizards Guild/Supper Club/Dinner Parties: Drez, Malark (who just joined) and "Aristide", who hadn't come to one in a couple of hundred years now. He id'd the necklace as just being a necklace and the gem as magical, offering to take it off their hands. They declined, deciding he was low-balling them, even though he DID say he's cast minor spells for cost if they did.

They wrapped up and headed to bed at the Singing Swan.

Deaths
Gygar the light footman - Died off screen escorting two small children back to the surface. Butchered by killers and remains placed in stone cairn by party. This was his second expedition with the party.

Loot & XP
Giant Mutated Frog
2 pale mangy looping pouncing humanoids
3 Cousin It's
Intricate gold & ruby necklace (5000gp) with a inscription To my darling Malvoy, from Aristide.
Stone tablet with strange writing and picture of tentacles rubbing on a humanoid figure
Fist sized orange gem that can erupt with fire bolts, but is unstable ...

2 comments:

  1. The Broken Shield kicks so much ass...

    ReplyDelete
  2. I'm just glad someone threw oil and lit it on fire in my absence!

    ReplyDelete