Last week in my Swords & Wizardry campaign I prepared to send my players into the classic adventure I2: Tomb of the Lizard King by Mark Acres (1982). I ran this module, with many changes, way back in the 1980s for a B/X campaign. For my Swords & Wizardry campaign, I completely changed the module. While it is my intention to run some of the classics in this campaign some changes are inevitable. The change to Swords & Wizardry rules is needed but also I do not want to run large dungeon crawls in an online-only game. I like to keep things fairly short. So I kept the basic plot - a recently risen vampire lizard man king / magic-user threatening human civilization. But I removed much of the overland portion to fit my campaign and I removed the brigands. It struck me as odd that the first level of a Tomb of a Lizard King had so few lizardmen in it in the published adventure.
I was concerned that the 5 maps I created would be blown through by the players in one session but they got sidetracked for the first few hours of the session with a hunt for an assassin encountered in the previous session. For this encounter, all I had was the maps for a few locations the players had already investigate around their hometown and the statistics for an assassin. Then I played it by ear. When the players gave me a logical opening I had the assassin move in.
Session 54: The Assassin
Lakima (human magic-user), Eathwund (human fighter), Alonso (human fighter), Aashdoshan (human necromancer), Domago (human cleric NPC), Lantosh (human fighter NPC), Fenris the Filch (human thief NPC).
The day after the ritual by Malyn the full Company of the Black Dragon gathers in the Chapter House common room. Lakima lays out a plan to catch the assassin who is targeting some of the group (Lakima, Eathwund, Domago). The three adventurers who are being targeted will stay at the Chapter House hopefully drawing the eyes of the assassin to them. Fenris and Aashdoshan will head to the Sign of the Purple Bugbear tavern. Lantosh and Alonso will head over later in the day and cover the exits.
Lakima, Eathwund, and Domago do head over to Alayna’s shop and bring back three potions of neutralize poison.
Fenris and Aashdoshan head over to the tavern. Aashdoshan carrying two skeletons in an old barrel. He places the barrel in the kitchen where his skeletons can be quickly summoned. Aashdoshn brings a chair up to the second-floor hallway and sits down to wait. Around noon Fenris spreads flour all over the floor on the second floor and on the ladder to the attic (the assassin had previously used Dust of Disappearance). Soon after Alonso and Lantosh arrive and take up positions outside the tavern guarding both doors.
As evening falls, the remaining three (Lakima, Eathwund, and Domago) make their way over to the tavern and enter. They make themselves comfortable in the tavern room. Lakima sends Fenris to climb up on the roof of the next-door building where he can watch the door to the attic of the tavern. Aashdoshan spots the tavern’s ghost floating down the second-floor hallway. She pauses and then passes through a wall into one of the rooms. Aashdoshan slips down the hallway and enters the room - leaving his tracks going through the flour down the hallway. In the room, he finds the ghost hovering over the bed. He casts Speak with Dead and asks the ghost three questions.
“Why do you remain here? Because my killer has not been brought to justice.”
“Have you seen a stranger in the tavern, not with our group?” The ghost seems puzzled and does not respond.
“What is your name? Mari Kell.”
The ghost then vanishes. Aashdoshan steps back into the hallway. He starts to retrace his path through the flour but stops as he sees a new set of tracks that have come down the ladder from the attic and head down the hallway to the stair to the tavern. He quickly runs down the hallway and shouts, “He is here - in the building!” As he turns the corner to the stair he comes upon a hooded figure. Both are startled but the figure reacts first - stabbing Aashdoshan with a dagger coated in poison. Luckily, Aashdoshan is not cut deeply enough to be poisoned. He casts Stinking cloud into the stairwell. The assassin acrobatically does a forward tumble and manages to avoid the cloud of poison, and he ends up back in the hallway.
Downstairs, the other heroes hear the shout and the commotion. They see a cloud of poisonous gas billowing down the stair. Eathwund tries to hold his breath and run up the stairs but he is overcome and staggers to the floor. Lakima rushes out the main door of the tavern and casts Levitate. He begins to rise up in the air. Domago tries to get to Eathwund but he is driven back by the cloud of gas. Upstairs, the assassin runs away from Aashdoshan and scrambles to the ladder to the attic. Outside, Lakima ascends over the roof of the tavern and casts Wall of Ice - blocking the exit from the attic to the rooftops. Aashdoshan casts Web just after the assassin scrambles up the ladder. The webs block the ladder from use.
Out in the street, Alonso shouts for a passing member of the watch. He explains the situation and the watchman blows on his signal whistle to summon more men. Inside the tavern, the cloud of gas begins to dissipate and Domago helps Eathwund to his feet. Above his head, Aashdoshan hears a banging sound and the sound of splintering wood from the attic. Eathwund and Domago join Aashdoshan in the hallway. They confer for a few moments and then hear a crash and a thump in one of the guest rooms. Outside on the street, Alonso and Lakima see the shutters from a second-floor window swing open. A hooded figure takes out a small crossbow and aims at a building across the street. Several guards run-up to Alonso summoned by the whistle. They look up just as Lakima casts a Lightning Bolt through the second-floor window. One guard yells, “No magic within the Town Walls!”
The Lightning bolt partially hits the figure in the window and blasts off a shutter. Eathwund shoulders the door open to the room and sees the blackened figure standing on a bed near the window. The figure throws a dagger at Eathwund, but Eathwund deflects it away.
Eathwund draws his sword and summons fire onto its blade he swings at the assassin who partially deflects the blow with his forearm. The blade bites deep into the assassins’ arm. The assassin staggers to the window and jumps out, falling to the street below. As he falls toward the street three magic missiles strike him cast by Aashdoshan.
On the street, Alonso and three members of the watch converge on the assassin and demand that he surrender. The assassin staggers to his feet and hurls a dagger at Alonso but misses. Alonso strikes the assassin with his sword, Lakima hurls darts from above hitting once. Then Eathwund drops his flaming sword, draws his bow, and fires an arrow right through the back of the assassins’ head killing him.
One of the members of the watch quietly says, “We wanted him alive!”
A search of the body reveals a pouch with gold and silver coins and a large ruby. Lakima gives the gold and silver to the guards with a suggestion that they leave and forget what they saw. The guards quickly leave. The body of the assassin is dragged into the tavern and tossed on the floor. He is examined closely. They find he is a bald, unremarkable-looking man. They do notice a black tattoo of a hand on his right shoulder. Lakima asks Aashdoshan if he can use Speak with Dead but Aashdoshan tells him it will have to wait until the next day.
The body is brought to the Chapter House and left on the floor in the common room to be discovered by their startled man-servant the next morning. Aashdoshan casts Speak with Dead on the corpse. They learn that the assassin was working for Zweis Radu who is currently in the Shattered Isles. They also learn he was working alone and they should not have to worry about more assassins. Although, the corpse does threaten to come after them from beyond the grave. Aashdoshan takes care of this eventuality by raising the corpse as a servitor zombie.
Later in the day, the Company of the Black Dragon heads to the Citadel and requests an audience with Lord Colten Brightmoor. They ask about the bounty on the head of the Black Dragon of the Cursed Marshes. Lakima asks for the group to receive the currently abandoned Radu estates as a reward for killing the dragon. He argues that this is a just reward since the Radu family has tried to kill them so many times. Lord Brightmoor is taken aback but does indicate that something can be worked out.
The Company spends a week preparing to head to the Cursed Marshes. Eathwund arranges with the carpenter Issac to repair the damage done to the Purple Bugbear tavern. Alonso picks up his Scale mail armor that Cromly has made from the scales of the Black dragon they killed a few weeks ago.
Eventually, they set out for Whetwhistle. Most of the company on horseback and Aashdoshan driving a cart loaded with a barrel containing his servitor skeletons. In Whetwhistle they meet with their partner Wexley. The halfling tells them that things are going well at the Copper Mine. More men have been hired and a few people have moved to Whetwhistle. The village is slowly growing. After a night at the Goose Inn as guests of Wexley, they are ferried across the river to the swamp. They find that the rafts they used on their last trip into the swamps are still resting on the riverbank.
The adventurers divide into three groups to distribute their weight amongst the three rafts. Lakima uses the Arrow of Direction to point the way to the Lair of the Black Dragon. They set out to the southwest. After a few hours, they have an encounter with a giant crocodile but manage to drive off the enormous reptile with missile fire. That night they camp on an island in the swamp.
Each morning Lakima again consults the Arrow of Direction to make certain they are on the right track. Around noon on the second day, they see a swarm of Giant Mosquitos approaching from the west. Once the mosquitos are within range, Lakima incinerates them with a fireball spell. That night they manage to find another, reasonably dry island to set up camp.
On their third day in the swamp, they spot a shack on stilts in the distance. The shack rests on a small hummock of mud. The shack almost looks deserted but a thin wisp of smoke drifts out of a metal chimney. They approach and shout a greeting but get no response. Fenris leaves a raft and scouts around and underneath the hut finding only some small snake and frog bones. Lakima and Alonso climb up to the platform around the shed and knock on the door. An old woman answers. She tells them her name is Rosalinda. After some prodding, she agrees to let Alonso and Lakima into her hut. Inside they find that the hut has a single room that is jammed full with birdcages and herbs hanging from the ceiling, shelves full of jars, and stacks of pots. Rosalinda seems happy enough to answer questions and in turn, asks about the adventurers and what brings them to her abode. She offers them a greenish-brown soup but they decline. Lakima surreptitiously casts Detect Magic and the woman, the soup, and a number of other items amongst the hut glow magically. She pays no mind to this but says, “Nothing gets past you does it?”
Eventually, Alonso and Lakima leave. They continue on to the southwest. Just before sunset, they see a ruin of white stone poking up from the swamp. They stop at the ruin which sits on a small island. The ruin is barely three walls and a stone floor but it is the driest place they have encountered in the swamp so they stop to make camp. They find the remnants of a campfire that is very old. On two of the remaining walls of the building, they see carvings depicting a humanoid snake man. Alonso suggests they could be depictions of the Ophidians. Creatures lost to legend. They build a fire and sleep peacefully that evening. As the sun rises and they eat a meal they spot a hill of mud on the horizon to the southwest. Lakima checks the Arrow of Direction and finds it is pointing directly at the mound.
Setting out on the rafts they travel for a few hours as the mound comes into view. The ruins of a stone temple can be seen partially buried under a slide of mud. The temple platform goes to the edge of the swamp. Tied to several wooden poles before the platform is a dozen canoes. The Temple is not completely abandoned. A doorway at the rear of the platform leads deeper into the side of the hill.
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