Just Kobolds you say?

We played session 8 on the weekend. A long session. I had hoped to give the players a few choices in the next adventure but they have been moving quickly through adventures and only one was completely ready to play. I converted The Transmuter's Last Touch, a D20 system adventure from Goodman Games to Swords & Wizardry. I made a few minor changes to the plot, no major changes. It ran fairly well. The augmented Kobolds gave me a chance to use one of my favorite D&D monsters one more time before they become too low in level.

Session 8: The Catacombs of Soleth

The adventurers leave the Crypt beneath the Church of St. Bethesda with six robbers in custody. They almost immediately come across the Town watch. The watch recognizes some of the robbers so everything goes smoothly. They then return to the Crypts to retrieve the wormwraith's coffin which is a Chest of Preservation. The next day they find a merchant willing to purchase the strange item.

Their companion Raeish decides to leave the group now that he has a sizeable stack in gold. He says his goodbyes and heads home.

The player of the character joined the chat and said he was dropping out. He was not happy with playing a fighter-magic-user Elf. The advancement of multi-classed characters in Swords & Wizardry is very slow.

The remaining heroes split up to do some shopping. Eathwund goes looking for armor and Marta directs him to the shop where he got his armor a week earlier. Eathwund sells his old armor and buys a custom-fitted suit of plate mail. They meet up in the Town square. On the message board is a notice from the Merchant Adventurers Guild offering a reward for a task.

After a brief wait in the Merchant guild offices, they meet with the Secretary of the Merchant’s Guild who tells them of attacks on independent merchants traveling on the wilderness road. Some of the attacks have been less than one day's ride from Edgerton. The few merchants who survived the attack say it was kobolds led by a four-armed creature much bigger than a kobold. The local militia is patrolling the road but has not been able to put a stop to the attacks. The merchants will pay 3,000 gold to any group that can put an end to the problem.

The four adventurers set out the next morning. They have no clear plan other than to head east on the trail and look for signs of an attack. On the first day, they meet a merchant with one wagon guarded by a mercenary. The two men tell them that they come upon the aftermath of an attack a few hours east of the waystation. They mention that the waystation is an inn. They buried two bodies at the site of the attack.

At the end of the day, the heroes make it to the Restless Knight Inn just as the sun has set. They meet the innkeeper Tevan and a few patrons. A tinker they meet mentions that he also came upon the recent attack site. He says it is 2 hours to the east.

The next day they mount up and head east. After a few hours, they come across an overturned cart, some debris, a pair of graves, and they find a trail leading north. They follow the trail for two hours and discover a stone doorway in the side of a  cliff. The door is carved with the disturbing image of a robed man pouring a liquid into the mouth of a corpse. There are bas-relief carvings to either side. They notice that one carving of a robed skeleton has an open mouth. Lakim a pours some water into the mouth and the carving swings back revealing a secret door.

They enter the dark passage. Lakima lights his lantern. Immediately they feel a heavy atmosphere pressing against their heads. The sound seems to be deadened. Lakima asks Daen if this could be a type of rock or natural phenomenon. Daen is doubtful. He believes it is magical in nature.

In the first room, they come to they have to fight six kobolds. There is also an alarm gong in the chamber but they keep the kobolds from ringing it. A sleep spell makes short work of the kobolds. One is awakened and interrogated. They learn that the kobold leader is called Drask the everchanging.

Marta casts Detect traps. He immediately comes across a trap on a stone staircase headed down into a room. They grab a kobold corpse and throw it down the stairs. It triggers the trap causing the stair to become a slide and blades and spikes to spring out of the walls. They decide to head the other direction. They pass a striking bas-relief of a skeletal man. Marta surmises that it is a depiction of Soleth, the God of Peaceful rest. He says a prayer before it and they move on. They come to another stone stair that leads into a chamber where the far end of the chamber is blocked by a 15 tall wall of wooden and metal debris taken from merchants. Kobolds can be heard on the other side.

Lakima comes up with the idea to sound the gong to get the Kobolds to reveal the method of passing through the wall. But with the magical quiet in the catacombs, the banging on the gong is not very loud. Eventually, the constant banging does get the attention of the Kobolds. The kobolds attack and reveal the passage through the debris. They dispatch the kobolds but one gets away. Daen chases it and finds an area lit by the greenish light of a continual flame torch. The kobold is there as well but now its eyes are flaming orbs and smoke pours from its nostrils. It yells at Daen and charges. A gout of flame spouts from its mouth burning Daen who clings to life. Eathwund comes to Daen’s aid and kills the kobold.

Everyone is a little perplexed and shaken by the behavior of the kobold. Marta casts Cure light wounds on Daen. But they pause to remove the magic iron torch. Marta searches the dead body of a mercenary they find slumped against the wall. It was being used as target practice by the kobolds. He finds a potion in a metal flask. He learns later that this is a potion of heroism. After removing the torch from the wall bracket Daen realizes he has been enchanted. His eyes glow red and he can breathe fire! Everyone is mystified as to what is going on.

They pass another shrine of Soleth. This time Marta does not say a blessing and a trap is triggered casting a sleep spell. Daen and Marta fall asleep. Lakima wakes them up and everyone (with the exception of Daen) suddenly gets enchanted with a Haste spell. They are not certain what happened but they suspect a magic trigger on the floor did it. In the area ahead of them they come across three kobolds. In a flurry of attacks, two kobolds fall dead. The third turns and runs into a chamber with a chasm. A rickety rope bridge crosses the chasm. For everyone except Daen the kobold is moving incredibly slowly. Daen struggles to keep up as the other three heroes race ahead killing the kobold on the bridge. They see more kobolds on the other side. The kobolds take turns jumping onto a spot on the chamber floor and soon each is surrounded by mist making them hard to see. The heroes, minus Daen who is still huffing and puffing well behind, fight the three kobolds but struggle to hit them. Finally, Lakima kills two with expert dart shots hitting them in the eyes. As the Haste enchantment finally dissipates Daen finally catches up. They all head back and step on the spot on the floor where they saw the kobolds step. All of them become surrounded by an obscuring mist.

The Rope Bridge over the Chasm

Past the chasm, a stair heads down further and they enter a wide hallway of alcoves. Sarcophagi stand upright in each alcove. The entire area is lit by a flickering bluish light from another of the continual flame iron torches. Lakima casts Detect Magic and finds that the torch is magical, as is the air and stone around them, and several specific areas on the floor. They make note of those areas and avoid them.

The head north, take the second magic iron torch and head-on coming directly into a kobold village. More than a dozen kobold warriors are suiting up preparing for a fight. Apparently alerted somehow. They see tents and kobold females and younglings. The kobold warriors form up into ranks and block the way into the camp. Daen leads the attack leaping into the kobolds. The heroes are still augmented by the mist around them and the kobolds are unable to hit them. In two short flurries of action, ten kobolds are killed and only two remain. Than Lakima calls a halt to the fighting, shouting “Parlay” in common. The kobolds apparently understand and throw down their weapons. They ask to be allowed to leave with the females and young.

Lakima agrees if they tell them where the leader is at. The Kobolds do not apparently have much respect for this leader and tell the heroes where the leader’s secret chambers are located. Lakima asks for a guide and the kobolds wave over one of the smallest of the young. The young kobold Smit leads them to a sarcophagus in an alcove and pushes a trigger revealing a secret door. They let the kobold run away. Feeling this could be the big battle, they prepare and Marta tests and then drinks a potion of heroism.

However, the secret passage leads to an empty room. There is an eight-foot-tall statue of a mage made out of tarnished bronze. It is badly dented and seems immobile. Lakima detects that it is magical. Also in the room is a magical mirror that allows them to see through stone into the hallway of sarcophagi. Overhead there is a 10-foot square cube of glass hanging motionless in the air. A passageway leads further west. They follow the passage and confront Drask. A mutated, five-foot-tall kobold with four arms and a mutated tail. Two of the arms are furry and have large claws. He is holding a battleax. Drask gloats at them daring them to stand against him. Drask is standing atop a dais that is glowing red and pink in undulating waves. They move in on all sides and attack Drask. Drask strikes back hitting Marta and nearly killing the cleric. They continue to attack making several hits. Just as it looks like they are close to killing the mutated kobold, he laughs and fades from sight!

Lakima crushes some chalk and throws it in the air suspecting that Drask has gone invisible. But the chalk does not reveal any invisible creatures. They do see a huge pile of gold, silver, magic items, and other valuables. Lakima stirs them into action and pulls out several large sacks. Soon they are all loaded down with gold and silver and struggling to walk. They drag themselves out into the other chamber. As they are passing through, Drask, fades back into sight and attacks Daen and hits the dwarf. Then he vanishes again.

Frustrated the heroes pick up the sacks and again start dragging them out the way they came in. They take advantage of the misty augmentation again near the bridge over the chasm. Weighted down they are concerned about the strength of the bridge. They decide to cross one at a time. Marta goes first. As he reaches the other side, Drask appears and strikes him for a grievous wound. Before the others can arrive to help, Drask is gone. They note that Drask also looks healed from earlier wounds.

Marta is anxious to keep moving and draw out more attacks but he is convinced by his companions to cast cure light wounds twice on himself before continuing. They reach the chamber with the barricade. As they pass through the narrow passage, Drask appears and attacks while they struggle to move. He hits Marta again. Marta is urged back by his friends and retreats reluctantly. Drask taunts Marta calling him a coward. This angers Marta who moves through the barricade to attack again but supported by Eathwund. As the two attack Drask moves to attack Eathwund and leaves an opening for Marta who strikes the kobold solidly in the head with the mace. Drask yells out, “No, it cannot be!” He starts to fade but then solidifies and falls to the ground dead.

They search his corpse and find a pair of empty potion containers and his battleax but nothing more. They drag Drask’s body and a few kobold bodies out to the road along with all of the treasure. It takes two exhausting trips. At the road they make use of the overturned cart, righting it and hitching it to their mule. They load up the cart and head to the Inn of the Restless Knight. Entering the innyard they quickly attract a crowd with their cart full of kobold corpses.