Dragonflight 2024, Part the Third: OSE and Wrestling with Kabrel's Tower

 Sunday morning found me at the head of the table once again. Let's get the roll call:

• Travis: Cedric - cleric, mohawk (Travis is a member of a group of us who play periodically at Around the Table Games)
• Ben: Gobble deGook - halfling, wide-brimmed hat (returning after yesterday's game)
• Daniel: Garvin LeBoul - fighter, helm, human image faceplate
• Pete: Fenzig - elf, short hood
• Van: Boffin - dwarf, bald, with topknot
• Zegan: Grim Greycastle - fighter, pointed helm

I remembered to write down the headgear today. 

Full table. My habit is to have five slots for game seats, but I always have a mental 'extra' seat available for waiting list folks, etc. Today, I had a no-show (last day of a 3-day con, fatigue happens), and Van and his son Zegan stopped by to see if I could spare a seat. Certainly.

Today, we're revisiting Kabrel's Tower, the objective of a pair of excursions early in the campaign. I had written up a synthesis of the two prior adventures for the purposes of the convention or other one-shots.

Of course the party is starting at Neuforde, with conversations with various NPCs in town - the mayor, , the priest, the halflings, and the elves. The group also got to see the snake map, as well as the spiel about Chaos mutants raiding the area. Off to find the nearest Node on the map...

Sometime into their journey, the party was set upon by a Chaos mutant raiding party - about six mooks and a leader on horseback. 

Here horsie...

The party spread out to take them on. A couple of the fighters focused on the leader and his unusual horse, with the rest of the party taking on the foot soldiers. Of course one of the mooks was naked... He broke through to give Grim Greycastle a fateful hug, burning him with acid and degrading his armor. In spite of being grimly wounded, Naked Dude was also able to injure Cedric quite badly. 

Garvin took down the horse after it had bitten a chunk out of him, and the knight fell to the ground, taking a round to recover. 

Other foot soldiers bounded, bit, and pincered their best against the party, but were eventually taken down. Gear was salvaged, including some replacement armor for Grim.

The party had expended spells and quite a few hit points in this encounter, so decided to hunker down in a fallen-down hunter's cabin. Boffin went hunting, dragging back a boar. Much cheer was had, and nothing attacked them in the night.

The tower was located sometime the next day. Gobble scouted, noting a pair of guards up top, and some tracks going to and fro.

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After some debate, it was decided to approach the tower at night, using all the stealth a party of metal-clad adventurers could muster.

Somehow, they got to the base of the tower. The guards must have ben sleeping. While they debated how to access the tower, Gobble decided to knock on the door. It took a couple of attempts, but finally a head poked over the battlement. Fenzig immediately slept him (and his companion). Boffin popped the door, and a couple of PCs ran up the stairs to put the guard permanently to sleep. The remainder puzzled over the plinth and ruby glass lens in the foyer.

More metal-clad sneaking down the stairs into the chambers below the tower. The party searched a few rooms, finding supplies and quarters. While they debated exploring further, a passageway became filled by a large individual who had heard their explorations.

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"Whadaya doin?"

"Oh, just looking around."

"Oh. The big-brains told me to guard here, but that's boring. Does anyone want to wrestle?"

Oh certainly. The dwarf and halfling stepped up. "Oh good! I wrestle you both. Best two out of, uh, three!"

Via some opposed strength rolls and arm waving, it was found that Bobo was an enthusiastic, but not particularly skilled, wrestler, particularly against more diminutive opponents. He ended up eating a lot of sand, much to his amusement. "That better than guarding." So how many big-brains are down there? 

"This many toes," pointing at his left foot. It had five toes. His right foot has six. "You want to help us?" "OK, do you have chicken?" "Yes, and boar!" "Whee!"

In the next chamber, the party encountered a dead-eyed dwarf, who immediately charged Bobo and Boffin. The unfortunate fellow was slain, his eyes suddenly becoming clear as the party recognized that he had been charmed. Vengeance.

Down the final passage. There were indeed five big-brains present. The first two, a fighter and mage fought a doomed rear-guard action against the group. The mage's color spray spell was less effective against this party, with only a few temporarily blinded, leaving enough party members (and Bobo) to press on. Unfortunately, Bobo entered the final chamber first, and was hit by a ray of enfeeblement. Poor Bobo. He sagged to the floor, despondent. The remaining healthy party members swarmed in, and the remaining three enemies fell after a couple of hard-fought rounds. 

After the dust cleared, it was found that a few of the baddies had visible signs of mutation (black eyes, tentacle arm, etc.). Clearly, more of the mutant forces. They had been disturbed in the process of dumping various alchemical products into a underground pool. "Bad bath." said Bobo.

In spite of the temptation to find out what gifts the pool water may grant a bather, all of the party resisted jumping in...

DM Notes:

Again, it was good to run through a repeat of the scenario. As I mentioned I merged elements of the two prior sessions, replacing the hobgoblin guards with mutants, but leaving a wrestling ogre for entertainment. He was to be the next granted the "gifts" of the bath, after all. 

Went well with a full table of varying experience levels. Always good to have a couple of repeat customers, and a handful of new faces.

This is the first year at the con that I played in no games, upping running games to three. I also had animals at home to care for so wasn't inclined to push long days. But if I run a couple more hours of games next year, I'll get a free pass. Hmm...