In Search of New Armour (Part 3)

Well, didn’t I forget a chunk of the last game where the characters were stopped by a cube of cold spell upon trying to enter the second door in the chapel? Thanks go to Cavell for correcting my omission. That serves me right to leave it so late to write the blog.

I last left off with the adventurers facing a threat from a number of humanoids moving towards the campsite. The group form a semicircle facing the incoming threat. Seven zombies are identified and once they got within 30 feet, Rikku and Kodos let loose their arrows. Neither did much, if any damage and the zombies are now within melee range.

As soon as they get within 10 feet, Xera throws her chakram, getting the bonus for close ranged attacks. The zombie takes some minor damage and tries to bash her back, he fumbles his attack and Xera suffers no damage. Rikku and Kodos move back a little to use their bows again but a couple of zombies unexpectedly lurch forward and Rikku is injured and on the ground and must parry at -40 to his roll. Kodos also takes some minor damage but shrugs it off suffering some minor stun effects. Hanu kills her target in one fell swoop as does Cavell. Asmodeus is attacked by a zombie and he loses the spell he has been preparing. Cavell decides to move over and protect Asmodeus. Similarly, Hanu moves to assist the stunned Kodos.

Further into the combat and Rikku now has two zombies’ attention, then a third one comes out of nowhere and he is now unconscious from all the attacks he has suffered. Four zombies have been taken out, with another two appearing from out of the blue – at least the party members were unaware of them. Three are attacking Cavell who is trying to protect Rikku and one is on Hanu protecting Kodos, leaving one on Xera. Then another zombie attacks Hanu making it ten joining in on the fight so far. The fight is quickly over with a count of five kills to Hanu, four to Cavell and one to Xera, who after four rounds finally chakram-ed it into submission.

Experience points are given and Xera tends to the injured Rikku, healing him over an hour period. Hanu watches over the two as the rest of the party go and collect their horses, come back and also rest to regain some hit points.

Rested and for the most part healed, the characters head on back to the chapel to inspect the door that had the cube of cold spell activated. They find it has gone and no trace of the spell appears active. The door is finally opened and a chaplet (smaller side chapel) with several stone reliefs of paladins of Eissa on the walls is discovered. An altar is checked by Rikku for traps but he finds nothing. A door to the east is opened and an assembly room is discovered with yet more doors, one leading to a preparation room with nothing but debris and the other tomb-like door with a faint, almost invisible, image of a paladin leading to a corridor with four more doors.

Rikku checks for traps in the corridor and on the doors but finds nothing, then opens the first door in the corridor to the right. Two large stone sarcophaguses (sarcophagusi??) are found and so the next door to the left is opened – yet more sarcophaguses. This pattern continues in each of the three rooms attached to the corridor, the last door at the end opens up to another short corridor with two doors, the left of which has three more sarcophaguses – the second door is left unopened as there is concern for the wellbeing of the party if they have managed to disturb one too many foes.

Wanting to check each resting place in order to find the armour Cavell has been gifted with from the High Priestess of Eissa, Cavell is concerned about being respectful to these long-time resting places, so he prepares a prayer for the group (done while Rikku is opening the doors in the corridor) in order to bless their actions for goodness rather than the rampaging destruction of the disrespectful. Ten minutes later the whole adventuring group assembles in the first room where Cavell spends twenty minutes in prayer with them. Then the party starts opening sarcophaguses.

Now let me tell you that opening the sarcophaguses was an arduous task in itself. First the PCs slid the top stone around and then tried to rest it on the floor. This was given a 40 % chance of success and it failed on numerous occasions. Next, several PCs got together to lift the lid of the stone coffin inside. Each PC rolls D100 and added three times their strength bonus. The individual results were totalled and if they got 300+, they had successfully removed the lid and placed it on the floor. The coffin was then checked for usable contents: Asmodeus performed a Power Awareness•Power Perception skill check (looking for magical items) then one of the other party members did a treasure search. Most of the time all they found was the decrepit remains of rusted armour and weapons, but every so often an item was found, be it a gold coin, magical rune paper, or in one instance, a magical Parrying Falchion that Rikku took. The weapon gives the wielder +5 OB with +10 DB versus undead – the item is keyed to rogues and thieves only. Lastly the stone coffin lid and sarcophagus sealing stone were to be replaced following the same procedure as for their removal. The sarcophagus sealing stone roll was left to the GM while character rolls were left to the players. As a bonus the first and second time for complete success in not breaking either the sarcophagus sealing stone or the stone coffin lid, I awarded the PCs 500 ExP. The third and last time the PCs achieved this task they received 1000 ExP. Many a time the PC’s success was foiled by the poor rolling of the GM and everyone had to do their bit successfully in order for ExP to be awarded – an uncommon occurrence!

The last unopened room contained another three sarcophaguses and a mausoleum behind iron bars and a gate. Is this the resting place of the great knight whose armour is awarded to Cavell? The PCs continue their job on the sarcophaguses first then head to the now identified heavily rusted iron gate and bars. Cavell tried to force the gate and failed. Asmodeus casts a Portal spell that opens a hole in the gate for all the PCs to pass through, it disappeared two minutes later.

After pushing on the stone door of the mausoleum, a larger then normal stone sarcophagus is discovered. The sealing stone is slid off as usual and the PCs look in to find a hole and tunnel where the stone coffin should be situated. Examination of the tunnel reveals drag marks which the party follow and they lead outside approximately 200 to 250 feet northeast of the chapel’s position. Moving through the tunnel, the group discusses their befuddlement as to what or more importantly, why the coffin has been dragged all this way. Reaching the light of mid afternoon, the PCs find no coffin. A thorough search reveals drag marks left behind in the cobblestones. More tracking and the party arrives at the northern outskirts of the community’s graveyard. The drag marks lead to another mausoleum directly south of their position.

Arriving at the base of the steps of the structure, Kodos, who has been doing the tracking since coming out of the tunnel, notices the drag marks continue up and past the chained stone door. Rikku tries to pick the lock on the chain, but instead of risking his usual lock pick tools he decides to use his pointy dagger. He breaks the lock nicely then realises this is all in vain as one of the links in the chain is broken and simply needs to be pulled apart. Suffice to say Rikku did the job expected of him and the door to the mausoleum is opened.

Inside is found four sarcophaguses. The drag marks stop in the middle of the floor and go no further. What’s that? Three party members hear a thumping sound. Rikku listens intently using his sharp elven hearing. Hanu comments that it is only sharp because his ears are pointy. Rikku’s player rolls his dice particularly low and fails to hear anything at all. He thinks it must have stopped. There’s nothing for it, but to open these resting places, especially since someone might be trapped inside one of them. The opening procedure is followed again on the first sarcophagus - nothing. As soon as the second coffin is opened four arms come out from the partial opening, obviously attached to something. Rotting flesh is evident so the PCs put the lid back down on top of the arms, trapping them. The third and fourth are also opened but nothing is found. Rikku then proceeds to hack off the four arms before they fully open the coffin. Once the lid is lifted and removed the two Rotting Corpses attack the PCs.

Ignore the fact that the two minis have arms!

The two undead are quickly dealt with and another scroll is found inside the coffin. It has the Channeling realm, Moving Ways (a Ranger Base spell list), first level spell – Rockrunning. This spell enables the caster the ability to run on any nearly horizontal rock/earthen surface as if it was flat ground. The stone lids are replaced as carefully as possible considering some of them are now broken and the PCs are a little confused because they haven’t found the paladin of Eissa’s sarcophagus.

Kodos searches the ground again, this time he picks up more information and identifies the drag marks on the cobblestones heading east and south. The group continues to follow them.

The map so far:

With that, the players decide to call the session to a close. They feel they have accomplished a good amount today considering they passed through many, many rooms – something quite unusual for them. They are also quite tired!

P.S. Again I have used SkeletonKey Games map tiles. This time they are part of the Graveyard title code SKG136e. As you can see from the first two graveyard images, one tile has the mausoleum showing the roof while the second opens it up, allowing miniatures to be used. I simply place the second tile on top of the first because as soon as the PCs leave the mausoleum, I will remove it. I print the tiles on 280 gsm cardstock.

In Search of New Armour (Part 2)

So, you are back again are you? I am glad to see it. It had been about a month between gaming sessions and I am a little lazy getting this one written up. The session occurred just over a week and a half ago with the next session supposedly on in three days. I don't have any images for you, just words - hopefully next time. Moving on from last time …

The PCs break their fast and organise the horses so that they will not run off without their masters in a time of need. The group then heads off toward the ruins.

Just then, one player gets a work related phone call (don’t you just hate being on call and then actually get a call right when the interesting stuff in a game is about to happen?). So off he goes for about 40 to 50 minutes while the rest of the players try and cope without his presence.

Anyway, the PCs make it to a ruined stone wall. It has been standing now for more than 400 years and nature is clearly taking its toll. Parts of the wall are reduced to rubble while other sections are still at full height. It is early morning and the PCs are moving east into the light of the sun. The wall can be seen to stretch off in the distance, both north and south without any indication of a gateway or entryway.

Choosing to go through a break in the wall, Rikku decides to throw caution to the wind and passes through. Just as he steps through he is pushed forward by a strong gust of wind and a loud gong/clang is heard in the distance. The rest of the group follow along on this ominous beginning to their search. Wondering if they have set of an alarm the party halts and waits a time to see if anything else happens … nothing. They decide to head in the direction of the sound as best can be determined.

The buildings on the outskirts of the settlement are the worst for wear, primarily being little but broken shells of their former glory along with a generous helping of open forest growing in and amongst them. What their function was originally is anybody’s guess. As the PCs head east between the ruins the gong/clang sound is heard again. A couple of the adventurers notice the wind picked up again right before the sound was heard. Eventually they arrive in what appears to be a large round courtyard with ruined fountain in the middle. There is a two story building to their north blocking off any views in that direction while south has a clearly marked old cobbled stone roadway. Further east and the ruins appear similar to the ones they just came from.

At a loss as to what direction the chapel they are looking for lies, Xera uses her Guess spell once again. It is determined that the chapel lies to the north. The building there is clearly not a chapel, but looks more like a dormitory or other type of residential building. The group decide to head on through that building rather than go around it, primarily because Rikku wants to go treasure hunting. They hope the chapel lies beyond.

This building looks reasonably stable even though it has no roofing. There is a stone stair leading up to a second floor. The stair seems alright to use so up they go. The third stair eventually fails and a small hole opens up underneath. Clearly it was used as a storage area but not much is left inside except for the broken stones of the now determine unstable stair. As more and more PCs arrive to the top of the stair a noise that can only be described as a roar is heard. It is a bear, but where is it?

Cautiously the PCs make their way down the corridor. Shifting sounds are heard and the group arrives at the source of the sounds. Cavell takes point with his shield in front of him for protection. He rounds the corner of the doorway and frightens a large black bear. The bear roars and charges forward bashing Cavell aside, taking out half the doorway as well, as it flees up the corridor away from the party in fear. Cavell only suffers minor injuries, however, the bear crashes through an unstable floor section. A thick cloud of dust quickly fills the air. Concerned for the bear's whereabouts, the party moves forward to the broken floor. The bear is gone, probably still running after the fright it received!

So what was the bear doing up here? The group inspects the room where the bear had initially been located. Debris, debris and more debris. Ah, what’s this? Bones. A forearm and hand. With the cartilage still intact, holding it together. Around the wrist is a string of beads that is quickly over looked as unimportant and packed away in someone’s backpack. The skeletal remains are examined and determined to be that of say an orc, because the bones are heavier than human or elf. Nothing else is found so the group leave the building and head further north. That damn sound is heard again.

The chapel can eventually be seen from a distance. Did I say chapel? It could hardly be called a chapel, more like a basilica! Well, maybe not that large, but certainly not a nice little chapel either. The adventurers make their way to the north face as there appears to be no doors on the southern or eastern faces of the building. The north-facing side of the chapel has large double doors in reasonable order of repair – especially considering it has been left to ruin for 400 years. The open forest trees do not grow up close to the building but grass does … hmmm.

Nothing looks amiss, might as well head in! And in they go. The doors, upon closer inspection, actually do look weathered quite a bit, but they are closed. That’s no problem, it is easy to push the right one open and enter. Inside the chapel is a vast area with columns rising to the roof on either side of the processional. This place has a roof and it is in reasonable repair - some light can be seen coming through in different spots. There are bird droppings under the roof beams, but there are no birds to be seen.

Thinking there’s got to be something magical around Asmodeus uses his Power Awareness•Power Perception skill. He can’t detect anything magical (poor rolling by his player). Someone else (Kodos?) tries and notices a humanoid, glowing red (Essence magic probably from an invisibility spell), skulk behind a column. Others are informed and the group moves forward cautiously. Seeing behind the column and using the skill again reveals that the being has disappeared – strange! They eventually arrive at the dais with a relief in stone of Eissa.

It is moving on to lunchtime and the PCs are getting hungry now. Before heading off to base camp, the party checks out the door to the left of the dais. It leads to preparation rooms for clergy and/or assistants - nothing else but a dead end full of debris.

Another door to the right of the dais is then checked and found locked. Rikku’s lock picking skills don’t help and neither does trying to bash the door down (Hanu’s shoulder is sore). Oh well, it is lunchtime anyway and the PCs arrive safe and well at their camp.

The ruins were strangely quiet and empty of life for the most part.

While settling in for lunch the horses become skittish and whinny constantly. The PCs get up and look around – nothing is seen. The horses become more anxious and start pulling on their reins. Some of the PCs tend their horses and let them back away from the direction of the ruins, back up the slope from whence they came. A few more moments later and the PCs are starting to notice several humanoid shapes moving towards them through the open forest ranging from northeast to southeast. It is hard to make out any detail because of the forest, but given time and they will surely be face to face.

Until next time …