In last weeks' session, the players in my Swords & Wizardry campaign solved the Legend of the Ripper and killed the Red Cap behind the series of murders in the town of Edgerton. This was a rewritten version of the DCC adventure Legend of the Ripper. That as written was sort of two adventures with a secret dungeon beneath the town unrelated to the primary adventure. I also kept that part in with a few rewrites.
Session 39: Legend of the Ripper
In the previous session Lakima, Eathwund, and Moonshadow investigated a string of killings in the poor part of town. The clues led to the abandoned Ten Bells Tavern.
Lakima, Eathwund, and Moonshadow continue to search through the ledgers in the office of the Ten Bells Tavern. They do not find anything helpful and are unsure of what to do next. Domago and Lantosh soon join them after returning from St. Aleena’s church and they are brought up to speed on the ghost in the tavern. The ghost then makes another appearance.
The ghost of Mari Kell appears and attacks one member of the Town Watch stationed on the Tavern main floor. She slashes at the frightened man with a ghostly knife. Immediately, Domago steps forward and tries to turn the ghost with his holy symbol. The ghost backs off a little, shouts at them about all men deserving her fate. She then slowly drifts down through the floor. It occurs to Lakima that she should have gone up through the ceiling to where her body is located on the second floor of the Tavern. He then asks one of the members of the Town Watch if the building has a cellar. The Watch man shrugs in answer. Lakima asks Moonshadow to check the floor in the office. Moonshadow pulls across the rug and finds a simple trapdoor. She opens it and sees a rickety-looking staircase descending into darkness. The air wafting up from the cellar smells like an open grave.
Moonshadow asks for a rope and while Lantosh and Eathwund hold one end of the rope she grabs the other and carefully starts down the staircase. The steps creak and groan as she moves down and then they collapse beneath her feet. Grabbing the rope, Moonshadow pulls herself up just as the claws of a slime-covered skeleton grab for her legs. A Bone Jelly. Moonshadow is able to get out of the trapdoor to safety. Behind her, a skeleton covered in slime slithers out of the hole in the floor. Eathwund and Lantosh attack the skeleton. Their blows do little damage so Eathwund calls forth flame on his sword which does work. Lantosh calls for one of the town guards to bring a torch and he swings that at the creature. Working together they are able to destroy the ooze and in the process, they realize that the skeleton was just some bones in the middle of an ooze creature. It loses its form and collapses down into the darkness. Lakima then called for it to be burned and Lantosh tossed a flask of oil on the steps and a flaming torch. The wooden staircase and the ooze creature catch fire - worrying the members of the watch but eventually, the wet stairs stop burning. The entire wooden staircase collapses into the cellar.
Using a rope the group climb down into the cellar of the Tavern which is a stone-walled chamber with a mud floor. Moonshadow immediately spots heavy footprints leading from the destroyed staircase to one corner of the cellar. A check of the wall in the corner leads to the discovery of a secret door. Moonshadow opens the door into a stone passage. In the distance, she can see a glowing red mist in a chamber. The group head carefully down the corridor until they come to an intersection. Turning down the side passage they found a summoning chamber and the skeleton of who they surmise is the last owner of the Tavern - Henry Crofter. Moonshadow and Lantosh gather up his notes and some potions amongst the equipment.
They continued down the corridor until they reached a large chamber. The ceiling held up by 10 foot in diameter stone pillars with bas-relief statues of St. Bethesda on them. The chamber is filled with red mist. Moonshadow takes a deep breath and runs through the chamber to an antechamber at the far end that is clear of the red mist. Gulping for air she looks at a horrible room filled with the remains of the Ripper’s victims. Standing in a corner glaring at her with red-glowing eyes is the thin figure of a man wearing dark clothes, a blood-red cap, and large iron boots. Moonshadow immediately screams for help and backs away readying her short bow. Looking away from the creature's gaze with difficulty. The rest of the heroes also hold their breath and race across the room to join her.
The heroes attack the creature immediately. Eathwund with his sword, Domago with his mace, Lantosh with his polearm. But their attacks seem to do very little damage to the silent creature and those wounds seem to heal rapidly. Domago tries to Turn the creature with his holy symbol but it glares at him with disdain. Domago briefly meets its gaze and then falls stunned to the ground (drained of a level). The creature seemingly gains strength from the draining of Domago. In desperation, Eathwund grabs a vial of holy water and throws it on the creature. The water burns the creature badly and they can all see that the burns are not healing. The creature moves at Eathwund slashing him with its long, filthy claws. Moonshadow continues to fire arrows faster than the creature can heal the damage. Domago gets to his feet and also throws Holy water on the creature followed by Lakima doing the same. Lakima casts Atanazabir’s Acrid Finger and splashes the creature with acid which seems to work. A final blow comes from Eathwund and Moonshadow together and the horrible creature staggers and falls. Its form slowly dissolves leaving only the iron boots and the blood-red cap. Eathwund then takes more oil and burns the cap.
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| Cornering the Red Cap |
In a quick search of the chamber, Moonshadow locates a locked chest. The padlock is well made and she is unable to pick it but Eathwund breaks it open with a crowbar. Inside they find tokens the creature has taken from its victims and a few treasures.
The heroes prepare to leave but face the red mist again. Moonshadow spots a censor that is the source of the mist. Domago walks over and closes the lid on the censor and the mist dissipates. As they leave the chamber, Eathwund who is closest to one of the pillars here’s a female voice whispering in his ear, “Find me, free me…” He looks over the pillar and sees writing in the language of ancient Vay. Moonshadow is able to translate the writing as saying, “To enter her realm, speak descend in the language of the builders.” Lakima immediately suggests that this means Dwarvish. With no Dwarven speakers in the group, they head back to the cellar and called up to the worried Watch guards above. They tell the Watch that they have killed the Ripper, “all that remains are his boots” and then they ask the puzzled men to go get a dwarf and ask him the dwarven word for descent. One of the men runs off saying that the local breadmaker is a dwarf. While they wait Moonshadow spots another secret door. This one is opened and reveals a long corridor ending in a door. Flickering light can be seen through cracks in the door. Lakima guesses that this is the trapped hallway from the thieves’ safe house beneath the Church of St. Bethesda. They decide not to investigate.
One of the Town Watch returns and tells them the word they want is “inni”. The entire group return to the large chamber and Eathwund says “inni” very loudly. After a moment the stone column begins to descend into a shaft into the ground. They watch as the platform descends into the darkness leaving the stone statues of Bethesda behind, ringing the edge of the newly formed pit. Once the platform stops moving, Moonshadow ties a rope to one statue and descends.
Fifty feet below Moonshadow calls up that it is a corridor filled two feet deep with sewage. There is a stone door at the end of the corridor and a swollen wood door well along one wall. The rest of the group descend on the rope into the dark well. Moonshadow tries to open the wooden door but finds it stuck fast. Eathwund tries next and succeeds only in bruising his shoulder. Finally, Lantosh is able to bash the door down. The door falls into a chamber filled with sewage. A stone dais above the level of the water holds a gold necklace with a large gem. Looming over the necklace is a ten-foot-tall Iron Golem covered in rust. Its head is that of a lion.
Lantosh and Eathwund slosh through the water and into the room. Lantosh takes up a position near the door to block the iron golem and Eathwund on the other side of the dais. Yelling, "Go!", Eathwund grabs the necklace and runs for the doorway but as he touches the necklace he hears a click and he dives for the water just as a fireball trap goes off blasting everyone in the room. As the smoke clears the Iron Golem animates and slowly begins to chase Eathwund. Lantosh covers his escape out the door and everyone runs for the rope leading out with their treasure in hand. Except for Moonshadow who stays behind to observe the iron golem. As the Golem arrives at the door to the chamber it stops and stands motionless, apparently unable to move beyond.
Everyone returns to the corridor as Moonshadow examines the Stone door. The door had no hinges or locking mechanism. But an indentation in its surface matches the gem on the necklace. Eathwund had handed the necklace to Lakima. Now Lakima hands it over to Moonshadow. She presses it in the door and the door slides up with a grinding sound revealing another flooded passage. This passage ends in some steps climbing out of the water and revealing a wooden door with a blue skull painted on it. Water slowly trickles into the corridor from a rockslide partway along the hall. Moonshadow moves to the dry steps and carefully examines the door. Judging it safe she swings it open and she, Eathwund, and Lakima are blasted with a lightning bolt flashing out from the lintel of the door. As everyone gets back up to their feet Moonshadow steps into the next room.
What looked to be an empty chamber 40 feet across now Moonshadow realizes is an enormous chamber. A bright light like sunlight comes from the ceiling. The far door is hundreds of feet away across a sandy floor. She walks toward it. Outside the chamber, Eathwund and Lakima watch Moonshadow slow down until she is barely moving as she very slowly makes her way across a dark 40-foot chamber with a sandy floor. They try to shout at her but she does not respond. Lakima guesses that the room has a Slow spell enchantment cast upon it. They settle back and watch Moonshadow walk slowly across the room. As she nears a crack in the floor she turns and starts running in slow motion towards the wall. In the room, Moonshadow watches in horror as thousands of scarab beetles pour out of a crack in the floor and race toward her. She runs for the nearest wall a few hundred feet away, keeping ahead of the swarm of beetles. Then she climbs swiftly up the wall but the swarm follows. Moonshadow kicks off the wall and runs back toward the doorway far in the distance. Outside the room, Eathwund and Lakima see the slow-motion pursuit and Lakima casts a Lightning bolt - which functions normally and blasts the beetles out of existence.
With the danger passed, Moonshadow again sets out for the far door. Finally making it and opening it to step in the hallway beyond. Looking back she sees the rest of the group standing 40 feet away in the other doorway. They shout back and forth and then agree to follow her. Moonshadow walks down the short hallway and carefully checks for more traps as she waits for the other heroes to join her. It takes the rest of the group an hour to cross the chamber.
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| The Mirage Trap |
The next hallway is dry and the floor is made of colorful stone tiles. Two wooden doors face each other on either side of the hall. Choosing one, Moonshadow opens it and sees a short hallway leading to a door. A glowing yellow gem is placed in a recessed holder in the lintel over the door. Slumped by the door is the emaciated corpse of a man dressed in workers' clothing. Moonshadow approaches the door and the gem blasts her with a dehydration ray. Gritting her teeth Moonshadow makes it to the door and pushes it open. Inside is a circular chamber. It is empty except for a gurgling fountain of crystal clear water. Reaching for her waterskin Moonshadow finds it is completely dry. Ignoring the fountain she yells at Lakima to toss her a waterskin. The waterskin lands in the chamber with a thump. Moonshadow takes the waterskin and drinks thirstily. Eathwund and Lakima join Moonshadow in the chamber by running rapidly through the open door and avoiding the Ray that fires at them. But Domago is also hit by the ray. He takes a drink from Eathwund’s waterskin and then checks his equipment. Domago tells everyone that the Neutralize Poison potions he was carrying are dry, as are Holy water stores. In the distance, Lantosh remains in the far doorway and refuses to follow. “I will hold this door in case it closes behind us - you go ahead”.
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| Deathray Trap |
A door leads from the fountain chamber into another room. The walls are covered with frescoes showing aquatic creatures of all types dying in horrible detail. Many dehydrated and baked in the sun. Resting on the floor is a very large, wooden crate with a padlock. Moonshadow is able to open the lock avoiding a cleverly hidden poison needle trap. Inside the heroes find a cache of peculiar items - a trident, a shark-tooth belt, a necklace of pink pearls, and a single pearl in a trapped tiny wood box. They take their haul and move back to the door with the Dehydration ray. Moonshadow reaches up and finds she can pry the gem out with a crowbar. It falls to the floor apparently undamaged but no longer glowing. Moonshadow tosses a blanket over the gem. The heroes all move safely down the hallway and rejoin Lantosh.
Moonshadow opens the next door and finds another flooded hallway that ends in a door. On one wall an open doorway leads into a circular chamber. Glancing inside Moonshadow sees the walls of the circular chamber are covered in frescoes that circle the chamber walls in rings like a story. Domago and Lantosh enter the room and Domago tries to read the story presented in the fresco. But he is interrupted as three skeletons are pushed up out of the water at him by a wave. He tries to turn the skeletons but they just fall back into the water. Domago then realizes that the skeletons are not animated. They were flung at him by a creature of water that emerges from the water - an elemental of water shaped like a humanoid figure. Everyone quickly runs back to the dry stairs and up into the hallway. The water creature disappears beneath the water. But they can see ripples of movement as it moves about. Lakima goes back and gets the gem from the other hallway. He unwraps it from the blanket and points it at the water but nothing happens. The creature continues to circle in the water.
Taking stock of their battered condition and lack of spells - the heroes decide to leave the dungeon. Figuring that it has lain undisturbed for centuries and a few more days will not hurt it. They again walk for an hour through the sandy chamber to get across. They find that the lighting trap is seemingly dead. They climb back up to the lair of the Red Cap then climb back up into the cellar of the Ten Bells Tavern. Sergeant Frans of the Town Watch is there to greet them and take possession of the Iron boots of the Ripper. He listens to their story with interest and posts guards to block entrance into the cellar. They also tell the Sergeant about the thieves' safe house nearby. Town Watch guards are sent to check the rooms but they find the thieves have left. The heroes wearily walk back to their Chapter House - some in desperate need of a drink. They know that they have a meeting with an old Blue Dragon on the next day.
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