In Search of the Unknown Session 3

I just finished Game Mastering another successful session of Swords & Wizardry. We did have some technical difficulties but it was not with Roll20. It was a problem with 2 of the player's setups. So only two players had voice and sound. The other two relied on chat. One player could not even see the map. Surprisingly it still went relatively well. The players had to deal with the intentional annoying mapping that comes with the adventure. A lot of long corridors that go nowhere. Clearly designed to frustrate mapping. It does not have that effect when you are using a map in Roll20. I had thought about using a more sensible redrawn map but I wanted to use the high-resolution maps I purchased.

Session 3: 10 May 2020

Players: Marta the Cautious (cleric), Manny Lightfoot (Halfling Thief), Raeish Farstrider (Elven Fighter/Magic-User), Gaeleath Olomaer (Elven Fighter/Magic-User), Daen Shieldbreaker (Dwarven Fighter/NPC).

The action begins in the prison cell area of the Stronghold. They are all preparing to leave but Raeish held back intrigued by the blue crystals. He decides to break off a piece. When nothing happens he pockets it. For the next hour, they wander through a maze of corridors. Daen remarks that they were not designed by a dwarf, they were designed by an idiot. They do not find anything interesting so they open a door near where they started and find an exercise room. There is nothing interesting about it.

The adventurers head to the west and find another room with a glowing, blue crystal. This one is emitting light. Raeish steps forward and touches it and is instantly vaporized. While the remaining heroes look about the floor for any ashes - Raeish materializes in the prison cell. Thankfully they had left the cell door open. As Raeish heads back toward his friends he comes across a patrol of three kobolds. Raeish leaps into a dash and the Kobolds howl in frustration and follow him. The heroes he left behind hear the sounds of angry Kobolds coming toward them and prepare for a fight.

Raeish leads the kobolds right into an ambush set up by his friends. Gaeleath kills one with an arrow shot from his bow. The remaining two kobolds see that they are outnumbered and they turn and run. Daen comments that one of the kobolds looks like the little bugger they captured the previous day.

The chase is on. Marta and Daen soon fall behind and stop running. Gaeleath kills one on the run with another shot from his bow. But the last kobold drops its weapons and gets away. Probably the same kobold that escaped the day before.

The adventurers listen at a pair of ornate double doors and hear a faint buzzing sound. Opening the doors they find a library. The buzzing noise is coming from some peculiar lanterns filled with fireflies. In a search of the library, Gaeleath finds two cleric scrolls he gives to Marta. Daen dismantles one of the firefly lanterns from the wall bracket and gives it to Marta. Frustrated by the mainly empty library, Manny topples a bookshelf to the ground to check the wall behind it but she finds nothing.

The Firefly Lantern

After a long walk, the adventurers come to a smithy and find two unfortunate, dead adventurers. As Gaeleath checks a corpse for loot the bodies animate as zombies. Marta turns the zombies with the will of his god but since they have no route past the adventurers they press back into a corner of the room. Raeish fires a flaming arrow at a zombie and misses. Daen chops one down with his ax and Raeish destroys the other one with his spear. In a room next to the smithy the adventurers find a dark hole on the floor. Raeish is intrigued and volunteers to descend by rope. He goes down 40 feet to a cave. Raeish scouts around a little and waves back up the tunnel for everyone to come down. While he waits, Raeish notices orc tracks on the ground. Everyone descends.

Once everyone is ready to go Daen walks off to the north and falls right into a 10-foot deep pit trap injuring himself gravely. While Gaeleath tosses the Dwarf a rope, three orcs appear in another tunnel on the opposite side of the deep pit. The pit blocks them from attacking so they shout angrily and then runoff. Marta takes the time to cast Cure Light Wounds on a grateful Daen. Manny easily makes it around the pit by climbing along the wall. She ties off a rope for everyone and they follow gingerly edging around the pit.

Heading west they find a crude statue of a human male. They head north and find a door. Manny listens at the door and she reports that she can hear orcs whispering and telling each other to stay quiet. The adventurers prepare for a fight and Daen flings open the door. They charge into a battle with five orcs.

Manny hits one with her sling. Daen kills one with his ax. Gaeleath stabs and kills one with his sword. Marta hits one but does not kill it. Raeish kills one with his spear. As the orcs begin to retreat Raeish screams angrily at the orcs challenging them. Daen and Gaeleath kill the last two orcs before they can flee.

Five on five against the Orcs

The group finds they are in the large cavern that they entered the day before. They know it is a short distance to the entrance to the caves. Checking the entrance they note that it is about noon outside. Despite the bright sunshine they decide to leave the caves to rest. Raeish makes the comment that Orcs are nocturnal. They set up camp in a grove of trees and post watches as everyone tries to rest and sleep. Nothing disturbs them.

That evening as the sun starts to go down, they enter the caves again. Raeish spends some time experimenting with the two crystal shards he has. But he cannot figure them out. The group enters the caves again and climbs past the pit trap. They come across the corpses of the goblins they killed 2 days ago. Raeish kicks a corpse to make certain it is dead. Heading south Gaeleath cautiously enters a cave filled with purple, glowing moss and some large fungi. He sees a skeleton on the ground covered in moss. He also notices that one of the large fungi moves. As Marta enters the cave, his lantern light causes a shrieker to let out a loud shriek. Marta, Daen, and Gaeleath are all injured by the piercing noise. Marta notices two fungi moving away from his light so he advances. Once the light hits the fungi they shriek again. Once Marta moves back the fungi settle and don’t move. Gaeleath is able to pry a gold ring off of the skeleton’s hand by breaking off its finger.

The adventurers move north and discover an amphitheater cave with nothing interesting in it. They head south and find some uninteresting caves. Then they find a large, glowing mica formation. It glows a golden light. When Raeish breaks off a piece it the glow slowly fades. Unable to puzzle out the rock they move on. Further south they find a well-preserved crate of iron spikes and take some. They descend to a small cave with a heap of rags in the corner. As everyone turns to leave, Manny flips over a moldy cloak and is attacked by a giant tick. Yelling she attacks followed by Gaeleath and Daen who return to help. The tick is hacked to pieces in seconds.

Heading back past the glowing mica, Daen stops to break off a big piece. But it also fades after a few minutes. They walk for a while through empty cavern halls before being confronted by a tunnel blocked with thick spider webs. Raeish wants to burn the webs but the others convince him to move on and avoid spiders. Heading east they find a cavern that is blackened by fire in some areas. Puzzled they look about but only find empty crates. Heading north they find the iron door they passed 2 days earlier. It is still open from when they last passed this way so they do not need to use the command word.