Session 3: The Dwarven Monastery

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Ludanto
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Session 3: The Dwarven Monastery

#1 Post by Ludanto »

Waiting for the prologue...

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shroomofinsanity
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Re: Session 3: The Dwarven Monastery

#2 Post by shroomofinsanity »

Our noble adventurers began this chapter of their quest as any group of scoundrels worth their salt; examining and securing their ill gotten gains. In this case, the mushrooms of note, a bag of gems, and a mysterious book.

After shifting around some gear and and making sure they were ready to go, our "noble" explorers continue to plumb the depths of this ancient ruin, one room at at time. The first such room on this particular delve was the old armory of the dwarves who once called this structure home.

The armory at first blush appeared barren, but on closer inspection by Thag, not only was a crossbow found, but in his efforts to retrieve the weapon, he accidentally uncovered a secret door. While this is a tempting treat, the party decided to leave this point of interest for later and feeling a little worn out, took to their safe haven, the tower, to regroup and prepare for the unknowns that continued to unfold in this place.

Upon making camp, poor Thag learns that at some juncture, small spiders had invaded his person and ate all his rations, and he had not noticed until just now, being distracted by his careful scouting of rooms and looking for external threats. Rabon quickly secures the camp and makes sure that the only spiders were on Thag's person, especially because they had an alarming similarity to the beast the group had driven off previously.

Galen, having been keeping track of the various rooms and paths they had taken, used this time to update the carefully crafted map of the ruin, while Allric began distractedly brewing an elixer, which unfortunately led to the tincture being able restore lost energy, at the cost of one's mood. Allric throws it back anyway, and feels his agitation rise, even as his stamina seems refreshed.

Aoife begins her own tasks in the camp by breaking down the rope and piton "stairs" she had constructed last time, in case that gear would be needed in the uncertain future. Then she helps Rabon start the night's cookfire, and is then presented with the dwarven tome by Allric while Berry and Galen come to join her.

The book itself is a dark piece of literature, speaking of Dorrask, a Lord of Toil and Suffering. It discusses how he is the one to lead the dwarves, not the older Lord, Tarog. And how someone named "King Garbold" had failed them. While Allric had no information regarding the text, Berry at least had a little knowledge on the Lord in question, citing him as followed by the dwarves during their height of decadence.

Berry shares this information rather bluntly, and Allric, having had enough of the child's ignorance, and being angry to boot, snapped at him about being so inconsiderate. But after all this excitement over the book dies down, and everyone settles in to sleep, Allric focuses himself and recovers from his anger and prepares the face the day.

Berry and Allric make amends, Aoife wonders about her ancestors a bit, and our party delves back in, after more loot and adventure, but are almost stopped by something as ignoble as a door.

First Rabon fails to pick the lock. Fortunately he, Aoife and thag combine their might to just move the door out the way. The room looks vaguely boring at first glance, just some furniture and half eaten crow, but as our intrepid scout attempts to leave the room again to inform the party, he trips a wire and drops a large load of heavy things on his head. Luckily he dives out the way in time, though Berry's lantern dies at the same time, crafting an ominous scene to be sure, with only Galen's lantern to light their way.

Allric's attempt to fix the situation only truly makes it worse, as his magic lights blow out of his control and glare as if the sun it self were following them. But after all this, the room, and the chamber just beyond are just the quarters of the kobold from earlier, though they do come away with a small bag of treasure for their trouble.

This has been plenty of excitement for our group and they head back to the tower again to assess the situation, Galen unfortunately ruins the map that he had been working on, Allric brews yet another potion, before settling down and studying the runes on the gem they had discovered in the kobold's treasure bag.

Berry, with the help of most of the team, manages to recreate the map, but is exhausted from doing so. But all too soon the camp time is at an end, and once more the group braves the unknown.

This time, they discover a library, missing a chunk of wall, and partially flooded. The easy to reach books are all covered in fungi and for some reason, there are books higher than a human's head in this dwarven library. After attempting to retrieve a book from above the mold section, Rabon promptly causes a cloud of fungus dust to assault him, which he narrowly overcomes.

Allric overextends himself in conjuring a platform to carry loot, and tires himself out. The group pushes through, leaving the library, and ignoring the chapel for now, instead entering a different door, after some struggle, and finding the desiccated body of a dwarf, which Berry, in his fervor to help, rushes to, only to discover that this one is a little beyond his help.

However the late dwarf was holding a page and had a very beautiful hammer on his belt. The party drags themselves back the tower and goes over their spoils.

Berry finds his small sacks have fallen out of the bottom of his bag, but is more focused on the new book. With the help of Allric and Aoife, he discovers information about the runed jewel; it speaks of "the healing spirit." It also speaks of the ritual to use it. Lastly a scroll with "sanctuary of the lord of shields" falls out, which is excellent for Berry.

Galen and Thag attempt to hunt outside to secure some game...unfortunately their spider friend from earlier seems to have taken all the small animals and webbed them right up. The two are forced to escape the same possible fate and make it back to the tower, mostly unharmed.

Luckily, there was enough food to whip up something basic for the group, and Aoife fixes Berry's bag, bringing the camp, and this chapter, to a close.


Sorry guys, it was more than i expected, but there it is.

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Re: Session 3: The Dwarven Monastery

#3 Post by Ludanto »

The party awakes the next morning to the sound of hisses and high-pitched barking coming from somewhere within the monastery complex.

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Re: Session 3: The Dwarven Monastery

#4 Post by Rusty Tincanne »

Rabon jolts awake and exclaims, Dang! Somethin's inta the chickens! He realizes where he is and blushes. Wish we had a chicken to roast. Or eggs to fry up. That'd be grand. When he rises to look out the door or a window, he finds the door slightly ajar and looks around. Hey! Where'd Galen get off to? He was on last watch, wasn't he?

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Re: Session 3: The Dwarven Monastery

#5 Post by Marullus »

"Feckin' Kobolds," mumbles a bleary-eyed Allric; it looks like he didn't get a wink of sleep on the cold, hard stone floor, Exhaustion heavy in his features. "Feather beds. When I get back? Feather beds."

He rousts the group and gets them under way, back across the courtyard to the north door and over to the secret door in the armory.

"Keep an eye for trouble, Thag. If the Kobolds are feisty and in numbers, we don't want them to surprise us."

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Re: Session 3: The Dwarven Monastery

#6 Post by shroomofinsanity »

Berry is the last to wake up, feeling extremely well rested and blessed by the Lords themselves. He notices his compatriots have already left, he scrambles to get all his gear together and runs after the others. He sees the elf is not around the other, figures he is off scouting.

Good morning team, ready for the excitement of delving? Berry says just abrasively cheerfully.

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Re: Session 3: The Dwarven Monastery

#7 Post by Rusty Tincanne »

As the group heads out, Rabon reminds Allric, et al, that they are in need of a source of fresh water.

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Re: Session 3: The Dwarven Monastery

#8 Post by Marullus »

Allric considers Rabon's words. "Thag... you want to check out that well, or head on to the armory?" He leaves it to their scout to lead the way.

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Re: Session 3: The Dwarven Monastery

#9 Post by BillTheGalacticHero »

Let's check the well first, in case we need water later, when water might be scarce.

Rabon, may I use the pole?

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Re: Session 3: The Dwarven Monastery

#10 Post by Ludanto »

By the time you get outside, the chattering of the kobolds has ceased. Now, the only sound is the distant cawing of a raven.

The tall grass ripples in the chill morning breeze. It's cloudy again this morning.

Thag can see the spot where the grass breaks, on the other side of the courtyard, where Allric said he saw a well.

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Re: Session 3: The Dwarven Monastery

#11 Post by BillTheGalacticHero »

I'm gonna go check that well.

What do I see? Is it covered, is there a rope & bucket? I look in, can I see any water?

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Re: Session 3: The Dwarven Monastery

#12 Post by Ludanto »

Thag carefully approaches his target. As he pushes aside the tall grass, he finds a low stone well, uncovered, and without an apparent means of retrieving the water.

Beside the well is the mangled corpse of a human in adventurer's garb.

The well is dark, but there's the strong smell of water.

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Re: Session 3: The Dwarven Monastery

#13 Post by BillTheGalacticHero »

Berry, time for you do give some last rites.

Can I tell how the adventurer was killed? From the description I think the wolves probably got him as he was trying to get some water.
Last edited by BillTheGalacticHero on Wed Oct 25, 2017 2:57 pm, edited 2 times in total.

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Re: Session 3: The Dwarven Monastery

#14 Post by BillTheGalacticHero »

Poor soul, if we can find out who he is we should contact his family, if he has any sort of family heirloom maybe there would be a reward? As an adventurer he would have known that if he died in the wilds that his gear could be found and used by other adventurers if his companions could not recover his body.
As for the well, since there's no bucket then we need some way to get the water. Rabon, as our cook, probably has a kettle or stewpot with a handle. We could tie a rope to it and use it. But I would want to make sure that we would not use up those supplies. My home trait is Weaver so I should be able to tie a knot that won't come undone until I want it to. We lower the kettle, fill it up, then boil it right in the kettle. This might take one or two tests, unless our fine GM decides it's a "Good Idea".

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Re: Session 3: The Dwarven Monastery

#15 Post by Ludanto »

Thag looks the body over. It seems to have been torn apart and partially eaten by a large animal.

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Re: Session 3: The Dwarven Monastery

#16 Post by jhrrsn »

While the others investigate the well, Aoife keeps her eyes on their surroundings, looking out for any skittering spiderlings or diminutive denizens.
Aoife Kearney || Torchbearer: Scoundrels

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Re: Session 3: The Dwarven Monastery

#17 Post by BillTheGalacticHero »

jhrrsn wrote:While the others investigate the well, Aoife keeps her eyes on their surroundings, looking out for any skittering spiderlings or diminutive denizens.
And big furry ones.

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Re: Session 3: The Dwarven Monastery

#18 Post by Marullus »

Allric searches the body for valuables.

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Re: Session 3: The Dwarven Monastery

#19 Post by BillTheGalacticHero »

Using Rabon's cooking pot and my rope, I securely tie the rope to the pot's handle. Then while Berry and Allric search the body of the adventurer and Aoife and Rabon stand watch, I'll lower the rope down into the well, let it fill with water, and pull it back up.
I'm making an assumption here that a "standard" cooking pot would probably hold 4 or 5 waterskins worth?

Then we should burn a test to do a Cooking test to boil it, unless Allric has some elixir or can whip one up to purify it.

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Re: Session 3: The Dwarven Monastery

#20 Post by Ludanto »

Pulling an over-wide metal "bucket" of water 30 feet out of a well is hard work, but Thag manages it handily. The water that comes up is a bit brackish, but shows no other signs of hazard.

Allric, meanwhile, sets about rolling the corpse repurposing the body's gear. Unfortunately, it seems that somebody has beat him to it. All that remains is the torn strap of the dead adventurer's pack.

As Aoife watches, she is briefly startled by the sound of flapping wings and panicked cawing from the other side of the building, to the west.

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