Resource Planning

This past weekend we played through my rewritten I3: Pharoah adventure again. I call it The Plundered Tomb and it has been adapted for Swords & Wizardry rules and for the location.  Last week on the blog I said this;

This adventure is going to be longer and requires more resource management from the players.

I could not have been more wrong.

The players blitzed through Level 2 Kordan's Master Maze going into only one room and having 2 encounters. Then they popped up to Level 3 The Halls of the Upper Priesthood and raced through just missing several deadly encounters before figuring out the Dome of Flight and making it to Level 4 Running the Gauntlet. All of this in one session (about 3 hours). They avoided anything that looked like a trap and missed most of the encounters. But they also missed almost all of the treasure.  They were really mission-focused.

I thought this 5 Level dungeon would take at least 4-5 sessions. But now it is likely only going to be 3 sessions. This means I need to get to work coming up with where next. It is a good thing the holidays have arrived and I have more time.

Session 33: The Maze and the Halls

Players: Lakima (Magic-user), Eathwund (Fighter), Carric (Elven Thief), Domago (Human cleric NPC), Lantosh (Human Fighter NPC), Dag Icefoot (Dwarf Fighter NPC).

The heroes have leaped through a magical portal in pursuit of Carric who was dragged in. They find themselves in an octagonal chamber in an unknown location. There are four exits from the chamber and each is full of swirling mists.

Lakima points to the skeleton on the floor that appears to be pointing at one of the exits. He suggests that they follow that direction. Dag looks over the large, rusted lever and declares it has two positions but he cannot tell what it does. They decide not to touch it.

Carric takes the lead into the mists. The walls are ten-feet wide and ten-feet tall and obscured by mists. Carric decides to consistently turn to the left and leads the group in a circle. Then he decides to take a right turn and they arrive at a door. Carric listens and hears nothing on the other side. The door looks very mundane so he pushes it open. They look into a 30-foot chamber, a large pile of moldy hay rests in the center. Two minotaurs snort in anger and move quickly towards them. Carric backs away and Eathwund steps into the chamber first. He tries reasoning with the creatures but the minotaur nearest swings at him with a large club. From the hallway, Lakima casts Web from his wand and nets one of the minotaurs. Eathwund and Dag attack the minotaur and back it into the chamber allowing Lantosh to move in and attack as well. Eathwund slashes the minotaur with his sword which seems to enrage it. The minotaur tosses aside its club. Then it lowers its head and gores Lantosh in the chest dropping him to the ground unconscious. Domago grabs hold of Lantosh and drags him back into the hallway. Carric moves into the chamber and strikes the minotaur while Eathwund stabs it with his sword. The minotaur falls with a feeble roar.

They enter the chamber and see the second minotaur is stuck to the wall in the webs. They dispatch it with arrows, darts, and sling stones from a distance. Taking stock they look about the chamber. The floor is littered with gnawed bones and silver coins. In the center of the ceiling, they see the opening of a circular shaft. Carric looks it over and realizes there is no way for him to climb to the opening. Domago manages to revive Lantosh with a Cure Light wounds prayer. Given the rough condition Lantosh and Dag are in, the decision is made to close the doors and rest and sleep in the chamber. Watches are set and they settle down to rest. Domago taking the time to bind Dag and Lantosh’s wounds.

Several hours later, while Eathwund and Domago are on the last watch, Carric springs awake telling everyone to get up. His sword has detected someone approaching. As they wait and Carric starts to check at the four doors, one of the doors opens and they see an elven woman in chainmail holding a spear. Lakima and Carric are suspicious of her and they ask several questions. The elf tells them her name is Ayla Resnick. She is from the nearby elven settlement of Tindell and came to the Plundered Tomb searching for a missing elven boy named Vestan. Young Vestan wanted to be an adventurer and entered the Plundered Tomb. Ayla says that she followed his tracks to the tomb and she found the portal to this maze. She tells them she has been lost in the maze for 2 weeks. She has found nothing in the maze, no dangers, but she has been hopelessly lost. She suggests that Carric and her scout the local area of the dungeon while everyone else rests. Carric and Lakima tell her they do not want to split up the party. Everyone except Domago and Eathwund goes back to sleep. Ayla says she is not tired and she stays up sitting with Eathwund talking about what brought them to the maze.

Later that evening after everyone has rested and Lakima has memorized new spells they prepare to set out again. Lakima uses Levitate to float up the shaft. He finds the shaft goes up for 30 feet from the ceiling of the chamber. At the top, he discovers a trap door. Examining the mechanism he realizes that the door is designed to swing open if weight is placed on it from above. But there is no way to trigger it from below. Lakima drops a rope down and Carric climbs up with spikes and a mallet. As Lakima instructs him, Carric attaches the spikes, rope, and block and tackle to the trap door. Then using his weight Carric descends one rope pulling the trap door open. Lakima floats up into the chamber above.

Lakima looks about a prayer chamber dominated by a 30-foot tall statue with its arms outstretched. The statue depicts the same individual as the ones they saw in the entrance tomb. Carric climbs up and starts searching the chamber. Aside from some moldy, faded prayer rugs, there is not much to see. A corridor leads away from the chamber. Lakima calls down telling Eathwund and Dag to come up. Once they are up in the chamber he calls down for Ayla. But Ayla tells Domago and Lantosh that she is staying on the lower level to look for Vestan. She doubts the young elf could have made it up to the next level on his own. She argues briefly with Domago and then departs. Lantosh and Domago then climb up the rope to the next level.

Entrance to Level 3

Dag is immediately entranced by an enormous gemstone in the forehead on the statue almost 30 feet above the floor of the room. He asks Carric to climb up and remove it. But Carric and Lakima discuss this and decide it might trigger an alarm (they would have). They want to check the area first and make sure they are safe. Carric heads up the corridor leaving the chamber. Coming from the end of the hall he can hear falling water. Once Lantosh enters the chamber with his lantern Carric is able to see the walls are covered in ancient script assembled in verses. The verses nearest the Chamber with the statue are carefully painted on the wall, but further up the corridor, they become scribbles in charcoal. The verses talk of a High Priest Nadron and his search for eternal life. The last verse is translated by Carric as saying, “What has he done to us? Cursed for all eternity. Soleth’s mercy is out of our reach.”

The party heads along the corridor checking the doors and finding each leads to a small chamber and another door. The end of the corridor is blocked by a waterfall. Eathwund attaches a crowbar to a rope and throws it into the waterfall. The rope goes slack after only five feet. They decide this means there is a chamber on the other side but they cannot see any way to pass through the rushing water safely.

Instead, they choose a door on the right and pass through it. Beyond is a maze of doors and hallways. They come to a large chamber with an ominous black rock in the center. Around the sides of the rock are upright standing sarcophagi. The faces on the sarcophagi lids have all been gouged with claws. After a brief discussion, they decide to avoid checking the coffins (monsters avoided). Instead, they continue on past a scribes chamber until they come to three chambers that are in the dome of trap rooms below in the maze they left earlier. Looking down in one chamber they spot a chest sitting on the floor. A skeleton can be seen pinned to the wall by javelins. Dag argues for going down and checking the chest but it looks too obviously a trap to everyone else. They decide to move on.

In a storage room near a kitchen, they fight an undead ooze that engulfs skeletons and ejects skeletons. With fire and weapons, they are able to destroy the undead abomination. From here they backtrack and find a hallway ending in an alcove with another statue. This one is twenty feet high. Carric climbs the statue and removes some red gems from its eyes. Nearby Carric finds a secret door in a curved section of the wall. He opens the door and shields his eyes from bright sunlight. They behold the amazing sight of the garden chamber.

Before the party stretches a large chamber. A stream of water flows swiftly down the length of the chamber. The ceiling of the chamber shines with brilliant, warm, light as if it was from the sun. In the chamber are lush plant-life, grass, bushes, and a number of tall trees whose branches are covered in strange globe-like fruits. The heroes enter the chamber and marvel at the wonders. But unlike a real forest, the chamber is very quiet with only the sound of running water breaking the stillness. Barely visible on the walls are four paintings of enormous red birds. Lakima picks one of the orange fruits and examines it. As he does a bird painting comes to life and steps from the wall. An eight-foot-tall pinkish-red bird seemingly made of plaster charges toward him with a sword-like beak. Lakima casts Mirror Image and the bird hits two of his mirrors first. Then Dag and Eathwund come to his aid and attack the bird. Dag is struck by a sword beak thrust right through his chest and he collapses to the grass-covered floor. Eathwund and Lantosh hack away at the bird until it is reduced to a pile of rubble. Domago casts Cure Light Wounds on Dag reviving the dwarf who struggles to his feet. A warning is shouted to everyone not to pick the oranges.

They follow the stream down a long hallway but Dag tells everyone that they are descending so they turn back to the room. Heading upstream they come to another chamber. This one has four trees covered in the strange fruit. There is also a waterfall at the head of the stream and a pair of altars set on either side of the stream. Carric and Lakima move over to examine one of the altars. The altars have the depression of a pair of hands in the top as if pressed into the stone. Written on the front of each altar are four words in an ancient language, “Turnim, Logra, Regra, Neg”. Carric is able to roughly translate the words. They try experimenting with the altars to no effect. Lakima picks more fruit and places them into hand-shaped depressions but nothing happens. Dag takes one of the fruit and eats it and is cured of his wounds. No paintings emerge from the walls to attack. They pick a few sacks full of fruit and everyone eats enough to be fully recovered from their wounds.

Finally, while Carric has his hands on the altar and he says the word Turnim the altar begins to hum. He quickly blurts out Logra, Regra, Neg. In a short space of time, everyone starts to float and then fall toward the ceiling before painfully crashing to the ground. Believing he has worked it out. Carric tells everyone to hold onto a tree and he says Turnim and then Logra. He floats upward and swims through the air up into the dome. Then he says Neg and as his weight returns to him he falls to a ledge above the height of the waterfall. Making his way along the ledge, Carric locates a concealed door and opens it. Beyond is a pair of passages each ending in wooden doors banded in bronze. Carric tells everyone else to come up and join him. The rest of the adventurers join him shortly after.

Carric figures out the Dome of Flight

In this next chamber, Carric sees further progress blocked by two doors. There is gold-painted lettering on each door in an ancient language Carric has seen before in the Tomb. He translates it as:

Beyond these doors lie the tests of the Land of the Dead, turn now from this doom for great and awful is the horror.