Solo FTR Crawl 1; part 2

Solo FTR Crawl 1; Part 2 

I was able to find some time to continue the adventure, so I did!

The last lizardman put the party over the top for XP, so they all reach 2^nd level and assign their new Die.

    Ummork stepped forward and encountered a door. Realizing that he simply wasn't qualified to look for traps, he stepped aside and called for Ny. Carefully checking the door, he determined there were no traps, but the door was locked. Ny corrected that and opened the door.

    Entering the room, Ny first notice the left side of the room seemed to be a kitchen of some sort, with barrels, and people hide things in barrels. He searched, but found nothing of use. Cazio entered next, he noticed an unholy sacrificial alter on the right side of the room. Approaching cautiously, he checked it for anything of use or value, but found nothing.

    Mordvey followed the Cleric and also checked the Alter. He discovered what Cazio missed, 40gp and a small empty sack. Maybe the coins came in the sack, but were left as an offering? Without caring about the answer, the Wizard pocketed the coins.

    But TheDeep is aware, and cares not for the intruders. (4 tokens added to TheWatch!!!!) From the end of the Armory came the clacking of bone, and the dragging of feet. Skeleton archers and zombies were shuffling towards the party. In the room, the alter shivered, and a Deep Snake slithered out the top, disturbed by the magic-users poking the alter no doubt.

Initiative: Evil-3, Party 2

    The archer skeletons loose arrows at the lone knight. Arrows strike the walls and clatter away harmlessly. The zombie horde shuffled forward, reaching the knight. Fortunately, only one at a time could reach him with the lizardman's odd throne in the way.

    Inside the room, the Deep Snake coils, and suddenly springs toward Mordevy! To his credit, he doesn't even flinch. The snake strikes once, twice! It's sharp beak slashing the wizards armor, but not penetrating it. The Snake coils on the alter, looking for its time to strike.

TheWatch, roll=6. Add token. Roll for “Awakening Deep” card. Add a monster. Crap.

   

Disturbed by the noise, a giant spider descended from the ceiling in the room, right behind Ergon. Sensing, hearing, smelling, the beast behind him Ergon turned and flung himself into the fight. His steel claws driving deep into the spider, but not deep enough for a kill, just a grievous wound, the spider screeches, but remains to fight (rolled a 0 on a Knowledge check).

    Cazio swings at the Snake, but it writhes out of the way, again and again the Cleric's massive mace smashed down on the stone alter top, never finding its target. Mordvey fairs no better, his gantlets crashing down on the stone between the snakes squirming form.

    Ny rushes to help Ergon, but his sword can find no purchase on the flailing and dancing spider.

This was honestly terrifying!

Ummork stands fast, and attacks the approaching zombies. It takes all of his effort and skill but he cut down the zombie in front of him then ran through the door, slamming it behind him.

Initiative: Evil – 2, Party 1

    The spider lashes out at Ergon, striking him but causing no wounds.

Wondering if the second action should be to attack him again, or turn and strike at Ny, I ask “Does the spider keep attacking Ergon”, and the answer is ; No, and...

    The spider, bleeding and wounded from the barbarians attacks, tries to scurry back up the wall. This gives Ergon a free attack. The barbarian lunges, driving both of his clawed hands into...and through the spider. It's lifeless body drops hard onto the barrels and crates of the kitchen.

    The Deep Snake screeches and snaps at Mordvey again and again! Eventually the beak lands a cutting blow, but Mordvey's armor stops it cold!

    Outside the door, the undead shamble forward. (Can zombies open doors? Die; Yes, But...) The zombie at the door slaps at the handle, eventually twisting it the right way. It pushes the door, but Ummork is holding the door closed. It shoves the door, and Ummork isn't able to hold it any longer (opposed Strength Check), the door is pushed open!

    Cazio again bashes the hell out of the alter top, but can't hit the snake for anything. Mordvey does slightly better, managing to grab the snake three times, but each time it slipped away without effect.

Ny runs over his sword held high, and cuts the Snake for three wounds! Mordvey borrows a die to cast a spell enhancing Ny's Strength by 1. Amazing that he wounded the snake, but not enough to bring it down!

    Ergon runs by, decapitating the snake in a single blow, runs onward to the door and cleaves a zombies head in twain. He fights on against another, but can't land a killing, er, re-killing blow.

Foolishly, he is standing in the door way, there's no way for Ummork to get past him to the zombies!

Initiative: Evil – 2, Party 6

The Watch – Add a token. Nothing added due to 'awakening Deep”, and “Miserable Dark” didn't reanimate the spider or snake. Thank goodness.

   

    Ergon the Bear has had enough of this. With a savage roar he attacks,, cutting down the zombie in front of him, his momentum carrying him into another zombie. That one too falls, it's head a ruined mess. Stepping past the corpse, a skeletal archer shattered under the mighty warriors claws. Moving like a lethal dancer the huge man spun and lept, another skeleton fell, and finally the last zombie collapsed, once again lifeless. Striding back through the door a trap sprung, swinging a blade toward the man. He smashed it aside without slowing and walked on. Cazio gave him a respectful half nod, Ummork raised his sword in salute, Ny grinned and clapped like a legendary idiot.

    Ny moved to the door at the far end, disabling a trap on the stones in front of the door, then discovering what appeared to be a Magic Trap guarding the door. Mordvey stepped forward, flourished his cape, and stared at the door. “This is not a magic trap, Ny. This is just random patterns created by the spider blood spatter. This door is safe, however it is stuck fast”.

    So he steps aside and Ergon moved up. (how many party members does it take to open a door?)

Ergon easily shoves the door open revealing a sight of terror.

    It seems to be some sort of throne room, much more official than the one the lizard folk had in the hallway, and far more evil. Armored skeletons shift their attention to the open door, weapons raised. On the throne sits a heavily armored warrior, also a skeleton, but he has an air of dangerous competence about him. In the far corner stands the town blacksmith, chained in place and looking to the Party with fear and hope in his eyes.

Initiative: Evil – 4, Party 1

    The Skeleton Warriors attack the heroes in the room, while the Warriors advance from the throne to join them. Weapons clash, armor rings with impact, but neither side land any real Wounding blows. The Evil Warrior watches impassively, his warriors are blocking the heroes anyway.

     Ergon tears apart a skeleton in chainmail, but isn't able to affect the other skeleton he's facing.

Ummork cuts down the chainmail soldier he's fighting, but the other remains unharmed.

    And then Cazio arrives, striding through the door like a man resolved with purpose. His hand and voice rising as one, a pure warm light streaming forth from both. The Skeletal warriors turned away, trying to flee the Holy light, but found no shelter. The twisted magics that held them together were melted away in that light, the once again lifeless bones clattering to the floor.

   

    The heavily armored warrior, stepped down from the throne and stood in the light. His hand clenched in a gesture of defiance. A deep haunting voice fell from the hollow skull. “You know not what you face.”

His words continued, threats, boasts, blasphemy. And the whole time he spoke, with every word, with every second, the light dissolved more and more of him away. After no more than half a minute there was nothing left but the tarnished sword and rusted armor. In the peace of that light, there wasn't even a clatter as they fell.

    When the light faded the party freed the blacksmith and scoured the room for treasure. They found quite a bit in the chests and piles collected near the throne. Gems and gold coins worth 495gp, and magic items as well. Two weapons, two items, and a Healing Potion.

    The potion was given to the Cleric to hold along with the magical “Smelling Glove”, which can remove Stun effects with one whiff. Ny received the Shifting Shadows Cloak, and Ummork the Brilliant Energy Sword. The Weapon of Neptune which lets you command fish, the party has decided to sell.

The trip out of the dungeon was largely uneventful, though the wizard and cleric were slightly wounded by an arrow trap as they made their exit.

    The town was overjoyed to see the blacksmith again, and true to their promise they offered the party 1,100gp for the rescue. The party refused the payment, and Ummork made an epic speech about responsibility, and morals, and virtue that touched every heart and moved the souls of men so that no number of ages passing could let his words be forgotten. If anyone had written them down, which no one did.

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    An excellent game!  I assume that the final conflict seems anticlimactic, but I assure you that playing it wasn't.  The Cleric managed only a singe Wound on the centurion guy, and he had a d10 Hit Die, but incredibly rolled a 1!  Crazy, unlikely, and unexpected!  So it might look like a dull end, but actually playing it was quite different!
   The random nature of the games generation is, well, random.  But over time it all works out.  In this case, the dungeon appears to have had an Undead theme, lots of skeletons including the kidnapper "end boss".  It's the generating of a cohesive story that makes a thing a campaign, not advancement or gold.  

    So, questions this generates for the story to keep in mind; Why kidnap a blacksmith, then not make him smith things?  The skeletal warrior in charge wasn't capable of entering through the sealed front door, at least not on its own, so who helped?  Were the lizardmen just opportunistic squatters, or actually a part of the designs?

    The party will remain in town for a few days to see what opportunity presents itself.

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    The game works really well, the only adjustments I had to make were to the random generation mechanics, so not part of the game proper.

    The new method of hall/room selection is much better.  The thematic elements rolled up on the random charts add some time to the set-up, but make a real difference to the looks.

   I'm struggling slightly with treasure generation, it seems either too much or not enough, and the middle ground is elusive.  I'm also questioning some of the XP levels, but I am cognizant of the fact that I simply don't have enough data to make a determination on that front yet.
   I do think I need to change the way XP is handed out.  I was simply totaling it, then dividing between the party evenly, but I'm not sure that's the right way.

  I have noted that I'm lacking in enough "scatter terrain" for a dungeon.  Tables, decor, chairs, and so on.  I shall need more of those things.