As noted last time the players in my Swords & Wizardry campaign are playing through Goodman Games adventure “The Drowning Caverns of the Fish God”. Normally, when adapting 5e adventures I use the monster statistics from the Swords & Wizardry rules and swap out any monsters who are not appropriate level. This adventure had stone giants, bugbears, hobgoblins, and gnolls that had been augmented by an aboleth. I decided to use the creatures pretty much as written in the 5e rules. So the hobgoblin veterans became 9-hit dice creatures who otherwise followed S&W rules. I made sure the players realized these were not normal goblinoid creatures by noting their appearance and skill at avoiding blows. The layout of the caves they explored led to an ambush by the aboleth's minions. What resulted was a long, gritty battle. The players survived but just barely and wisely retreated back to the nearby village.
Session 105: Battle in the Drowning Caves
Lakima (human magic-user), Eathwund (human fighter), Alrix (couatl sorcerer), Domago (human cleric), Flora (elven thief), Fenris the Filch (human thief NPC).
The Company of the Black dragon approaches a large cave mouth in the hills east of Drydale. They are sure that the answer to the attack on the village lies within the cave. Entering they find the passage leads to an enormous cave lit by a pale green light from phosphorescent lichen. Flora scouts ahead and tells them that she sees a wall made of stacked stones. The group approaches the wall carefully. Lakima takes out the efreeti bottle and summons the efreet Khisa.
Flora is the first to spot movement as two stone giants stand up from behind the ten-foot-tall wall. The giants easily tower over the wall. Lakima begins to challenge the giants but before he can finish a sentence the giants have hurled boulders at them. One boulder is thrown narrowly over their heads but the second boulder slams into Fenris tossing the unlucky thief to the cavern floor. Domago runs over to Fenris and casts a healing spell on him. Lakima casts mirror image and 4 Lakima’s appear to be in the chamber.
Alrix casts a fireball spell at the stone giants who try to duck behind the wall to escape some of the blasts of flames. Eathwund and Flora fire arrows from their bows attempting to keep the stone giants down. The stone giants stand up with more boulders in their hands, they lean back to throw but Lakima casts a darkness spell on them. The giants are immediately lost from sight. A few moments later they can be seen scrambling out of the darkness and stepping up onto a ledge ten feet above the cavern floor. Lakima tries to freeze one of the giants with a deep freeze spell but it does not work – the giant is only slowed.
Domago blows the Silver horn of Valhalla and eight berserk fighters appear on the stone ledge with the giants. They immediately launch themselves at the giants. One of the stone giants grabs a berserker and hurls him through the air in the direction of the group. The berserk hits the stone floor near Domago and is dispelled.
Alrix changes into his serpent form to be able to reach the giants and bites one of them. The giant tries to resist the poison but Alrix constricts him and kills the giant. The other giant is killed by magic missiles cast by Lakima.
Lakima goes over and starts the ritual to animate the dead stone giants just as four, large bugbears wearing armor run into the cavern and attack. Alrix rears up and uses his lightning breath to blast the bugbears. All of them are blackened and wounded by the attack but none of the bugbears fall. Eathwund loses a few more arrows and then tosses his bow aside and draws Wormbane, his two-handed sword. He advances into melee with the bugbears. Flora tries to sneak up behind the bugbears using the globe of darkness created earlier, but the bugbears are not caught by surprise.
The bugbears are killed through a combination of Alrix biting and constricting them, Eathwund attacking with his sword, and Lakima directing the two zombie stone giants to smash the bugbears with their fists.
Once all of the bugbears have been slain, Alrix changes back into his half-elven form. Both Alrix and Eathwund are injured and Domago is bereft of healing magic. Lakima reaches into the bag of holding and pulls out the last three potions of healing they have. Alrix drinks two of them and Eathwund drinks the third. Fenris is also still a little injured from being hit by a rock. He suggests that Flora take the lead.
Flora leads the way down a wide passage. She spots a tunnel to her right and sneaks a glance – spotting a large gnoll taking cover behind a stalagmite. She signals to the rest of the company but they cannot seem to understand so she is forced to come back to them. Lakima suggests they sneak past any side tunnels. Flora leads the way but the two eighteen-foot-tall stone giant zombies make a lot of noise. She passes the cave on her right and spots movement in another cave on her left. Lakima again suggests they sneak by them. Flora makes it past both side passages, but as the rest of the company loudly tries to sneak past, they are attacked. Four gnolls charge out of the passaged on their right. Lakima yells at Khisa (who has been trailing the party) to throw up a wall of fire to block the passage. A wall of flames roars to life, trapping three gnolls inside their cave, one gnoll on the outside. That gnoll pounces on Fenris with teeth and claws and rips the thief apart. Fenris collapses to the ground unconscious before anyone can get to him to help.
They then see four hobgoblins and a dwarf running toward them from the passage on the left. Lakima quickly casts wall of ice blocking that passage. The group tries to keep moving but the gnolls leap through the wall of fire to attack, burning themselves in the process. As the party draws weapons and moves to defend themselves, a hobgoblin comes crashing through the wall of ice, followed by a dwarf. Lakima directs the two stone giant zombies to fight the new threat while Eathwund, Alrix, and Lakima fight off the gnolls. Domago reaches Fenris and manages to stabilize him. Lakima yells at Khisa to get into the fight but the efreet refuses, insisting it is not part of their contract.
One of the Stone giant zombies is brought down quickly by the hobgoblins but the second one stubbornly stays up turning aside attacks. Eathwund finds himself fighting the hobgoblin's leader and the dwarf at the same time. In the blur of combat, he notices that the dwarf has shaved hair at his temples with suture scars. His eyes are blank and lifeless. Domago moves to help and blows the silver horn of Valhalla. His companions hear the sound of the horn but do not see any berserkers as he summons them to appear behind the hobgoblins in the cave on the left. Alrix fights with his sword of dancing flying about and with his battle axe. He ends up in combat with the Gnoll leader who is larger and more vicious than the other gnolls.
Finally, the last of the Stone Giant zombies fall. Lakima yells at everyone to step back from the side passages and then he casts lightning bolt – but the hobgoblins and gnolls were probably alerted by his shout because the duck as well and miss much of the blast from the lightning. Flora runs further up the corridor looking for more threats.
The gnolls and hobgoblins continue to drive at the party with Eathwund, Alrix taking the brunt of the attacks. Lakima clutches his peal of power and summons the lightning bolt again. This time there is no warning and the bolt of electricity catches the hobgoblins off guard. Several of them fall. Things appear to be looking up but then Alrix falls beneath the claws of the gnoll leader. Domago tries to make his way to his fallen companion. Lakima yells at Khisa to carry Fenris and Alrix to safety. As the efreet moves to pick up Fenris a gnoll charges at him and slashes him with its claws. The enraged efreeti summons a sword made of flames and runs the gnoll through.
Lakima is forced to drop his staff of flame and pull out the staff of striking to attack the two remaining gnolls. One of the gnolls flings himself on Lakima clawing and biting him through his thin robes. Domago by this time is near Alrix and he steps in front of Lakima to protect him. Flora also arrives wielding her longsword trying to help Lakima. The gnolls finally fall.
Eathwund kills the hobgoblin leader and concentrates his attacks on the dwarf. He thinks that he sees the dwarf struggling to shake off the enslavement he is under. But it does not work and the dwarf redoubles his attacks and starts pummelling Eathwund. Eathwund spots an opening and cracks the dwarf over the head knocking him out.
Once all of the enemies have fallen Domago moves amongst the party bandaging wounds and setting broken bones. Lakima and Eathwund both suggest that they leave to get some rest. Eathwund asks Domago to cure the unconscious dwarf as well. Looking about at all of his injured companions, Domago touches the tattoo on his wrist and wishes for the ability to heal them. A Staff of Healing appears in his hand. His wish has been used up. He sets about with the staff healing everyone enough so they can make it back to Drydale. They tie up the dwarf and take him with them.
The party hikes back to Drydale a few hours away. As they approach the town it looks abandoned. As soon as they make their presence known a few faces peer out windows at them and Jacob Evenbow exits the Inn and walks out to greet them. He is happy to see the dwarf who he tells them is Kathrak but he is saddened when he sees the dull, lifeless look in the dwarf’s eyes. He asks anxiously about what happened. Lakima and Eathwund tell Jacob of their desperate fight. Jacob tentatively asks if they will try returning and is heartened when they say they will.
Entering the Inn, they see Uther the apprentice mage tied up to a chair. His eyes are still yellow and lifeless but he watches the group intently with a malign intelligence. In contrast, Kathrak has the slack-jawed look of a zombie. They tell Jacob that they plan to rest and recover spells for at least a day. He tells them that the rooms of the Inn are at their disposal and that food and drink will be brought to aid in their recovery. One of the women serving food asks to speak to them. Introducing herself as Mira Hearthwright, she tells them that her husband Jarek was one of the first to go missing. She and her daughter Jayla have resigned themselves to the fact that Jarek will not return but they ask if the party finds his ax “Kegsplitter” that they return it to her. Lakima tells her that they are not going to go out of their way to find it – it is too dangerous. But if they come across it, they will return it.
Lakima takes out his crystal ball and scrys the cavern where the fight occurred. He watches as more of the amphibian creatures that attacked the village appear and drag the corpses away. He notes that they return after a short period of time suggesting that the corpses were not dragged too far away.
The next day Domago tells them that he will attempt to pray to St. Aleena for guidance. He goes into deep prayer for an hour. When he rises, he tells the group that he saw a vision. That the creature responsible lived at the bottom of the sea or maybe in an underground lake. It looked like a large amphibian of some sort. He also tells them that he heard in his vision that those enslaved by the creature could be freed with a dispel magic/evil spell. The group ponders this and decides to rest another day before attempting to return to the caves.
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