Welcome back to another installment of Fun In the Badlands. This week we had a full table:
- Rick: Bjorr, 1/2 orc Paladin
- Chris: Thorn, dwarf Wizard
- Dan: Kiara, elf Ras Godai
- Seana: Zanegar, 1/2 orc Sea Wolf
- Callista: Erol, elf Priest
- Dave: Darkmist, elf Thief
- Andrea: Gabor, goblin Priest
Going from zero to two on priests. So much for my "waves of undead" plans... :p
Everyone (except Drom) had reconvened at camp, and were getting saddled up and ready to go. Speaking of which, what are your horse's names and dispositions (dispositions per Cursed Scroll 2)?
Bjorr has the advantage of the paladin's mount (Reliable or Lovely disposition only). Everyone else was on their own, and clearly most are not horse people. No comment on the names.
Onward, into the breaks of the Badlands.
Since the party had a rough map from the Iron Sentinels, they won't have to "roll for lost" on the first several days of exploration. Although Shadowdark has brief overland travel rules (p. 90), I'll likely employ OSE's Wilderness Adventuring rules to flesh things out, especially foraging and hunting.
Anyway, the Badlands Features table brought up an inactive magic portal, carved into one of the canyon walls.
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| source |
Being good PCs, there was a lot of poking, scratching, and digging about. Some remnants of foundations were found, although the significance of runes on the portal or its possible destination were not discerned. The thiefy types scrambled to the ridgetops, and found more possible ruins.
Curiosity satisfied, everyone re-mounted and moved on.
Soon, they heard other riders, and met a party of nine rough-looking characters. Some cautious back and forth. The "traders" had been poking about, and mentioned a possible old temple some ways back. The party noticed a few full bags. Likley not trade goods... Sizing one another up, an unspoken detente was established, and the two parties passed one another, each giving the other adequate space.
Ooo, old temple...
More ruins of a temple built into the stone. Runes and symbols linked it to Freya. Gabor is a priest of Freya, so was eager to explore. The interior was bare, and clearly picked through. Darkmist slinked ahead, finding a secret door missed by prior explorers. He also found the pit trap guarding it.
Gabor, would you mind roping down and reviving the broken thief? Thanks.
A couple of cure wounds spells, and Darkmist was (mostly) back on his feet. Door opened, the party entered a grotto, clearly an ossuary from years before.
Some poking about, and a collection of alcoves with mummified remains was found. Many had collapsed to dust, but a few were still relatively intact. Gabor said a blessing over them, and received a vision of desecration and distress from the spirits residing in the grotto. Down below, there are intruders.
Of course. Better clear them out.
More slinking about, and the party descended.
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| Boo! |
Well, this apparition rose up from the dark, passing through the party and laying out Thorn with a grievous wound. Erol struck it, and it was gone. Thorn was still thrashing around. With no apparent wounds. Erol decided that Dope Slap was needed, not Cure Wounds.
While the party shook off the fright of the illusion, "Sisters, we have new friends!" from the dark. Ah, the intruders, perhaps. As the party advanced, they were enveloped in fog.
As they thrashed about, magic missiles rained on them, as well as a number of curses, as spells with failed or had no effect. Finally, the party burst from the fog, only to get webbed.
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| "Wait, are those hands?" - Erol |
Zanegar ripped free with pissed-off-half-orc energy. Everyone else struggled, as one descended on the sticky mass. Zanegar managed to crit one of the trio, leaving it crumpled on the floor, twitching. Kiara effected a smoke step out of the web, and backstabbed a second, slaying it.
While the remaining arenea attempted to intimidate Kiara, most of the remaining party managed to break free. Knowing when the getting was good, the aranea fled into the darkness, receiving a serious burn via Gabor's Smite spell. The third "dead" aranea vanished.
With the web and fog and general chaos cleared, the party found a statue at the lowest level of the grotto, a guardian saint of the Nord gods. Kiara tossed some coin at it in offering, but Gabor pointed out that it may need something more. Some blood was spilled, and a spirit overlaid the statue - "What do you seek? Do you serve the Old Gods?" (Gabor, Kiara, and Zanegar are all worshipers)
Satisfied, the spirit revealed a door to a shrine. On the pedestals beyond were a flask, seemingly made of solidified smoke, and a set of leather armor with gilding. Fancy.
The flask was revealed to be able to contain 5 slots of equipment, and the leather armor could deflect one missile attack per day, on top of its magical bonus. Darkmist claimed the armor. There may be drawbacks, but we haven't found them yet...
On the way out, some equipment from other doomed explorers was found, and some shinies were recovered (about 20gp per PC), as well as some half-plate, claimed by Erol.
The spirits of the catacomb thanked Gabor and her colleagues for their aid in cleansing the space. The party exited (avoiding the pit) and bedded down for the night.
The initial feature and encounter were both randomly generated. Now we know that there is the possibility of some sort of magical portals in the region. The other riders came up as Pit Fighters, but a bunch of bandits was more suitable to the moment.
I've stashed a fistful of pre-filled encounter spaces in my game folder. Some hazardous, some more benign, or even beneficial (hard to believe, I know). The grotto fit the space and narrative for the moment.
And... I can't not love my spellcasting spiders. They have annoyed my players time and again. Since the party didn't charge through the fog, I just chose to snipe at them until spells failed and/or they took action. Yes, one aranea was using illusionist spells.
At the end of it, two escaped the party's violence. I'm sure they won't ever appear again...
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