When last we saw our adventurers, they had just left the sewers below Sharn, in search of an item for Lady Elaydren. Note this is written more than 2 months after the session, and I’m using notes from a player. I THINK this is correct. It is also interesting to see how they think about it, vs how I do.
BTW, the terrain in the pictures is a mixture of old DnD minis game battlemaps, and Terraclips (which are no longer for sale). There are some minis and scatter terrain also. I love the old DND mins game battlemaps so very much. And the Terraclips are also great.
Into the Caverns!
The party attached a rope to the hatch leading to a vast chamber w/ 30 ft ceilings and 60 ft total visibility (see comments below). The hatch is about 10 feet up from the floor, and they all use the rope. Eko uses control flame like a flare gun and they see skeletal remains in a ruined area. Yuri gets knocked out entering the chamber when he falls off the rope. They awaken him, then they hear chittering, and beetles move at party as a swarm.
Branstorm swings & fails, then uses insight to plan a new approach. The beetles attack Eko but fail to hit, but they crit George & deal damage to Zan. Eventually, they use fire and beats off the beetles & moves towards some ruins. Zan & George investigate, but mostly fail to spot anything meaningful. Eko notes there’s nothing religious about the ruins, but the symbols point to goblin crafting
Zan & George take rubbings, using 10 pieces of parchment for analysis at a later date. The party explores further, finding more ruins & eventually a brick wall. The bricks are sandstone and seem to have arrived recently. The bricks shimmer with some kind of magic. Eko looks at mushrooms & attempts a nature check, they’re not like any mushrooms she’s ever seen and can’t figure out anything about them.
Branstorm moves up to a pillar, & vines seem to slither away from his amulet’s light. Two large rats crawl out of a nearby crevasse. They have huge teeth & no skin on their heads, exposing their brains, which pulse with blue light. Branstorm immediately cuts one down, then Zan blasts the other. Zan examines a large ruin & finds large adamantine doors with no remarkable sigils or features. However, there are humanoid footprints that show someone has been trying to gain access.
The party finds piles of rubble behind the ruin. Eko tries to climb it & fails, but George & Zan help Branstorm up to the roof. The roof is covered in spider webs. Eko burns the spider webs away, & reveals a large hole in the ceiling. Below is a collapsed stairway and a bunch of rubble. The party descends into the ruin and finds more piles of rubble. George pulls a cylinder from a statue’s head (not actually a stature, it turns out!). There’s an ancient forge in the corner of the space. Zan heads around corner to a second room, and a two beetle constructs turn to look at him. One has a square rod in its head, and another has a triangular rod.
Eko produces flame & they don’t react. Zan enters the room and is immediately attacked. Zan is badly injured, but uses the Ruin Card (which they got from the fortune teller on the railway) to annihilate one construct. Branstorm disables second construct. Thy group is injured, and they try to take a short rest. Before party can finish their short rest, a humongous rat shows up & attacks Branstorm, but Branstorm quickly cleaves it in two.
Zan finds a boatload (these are the notes from one of the players, so it must be A LOT of loot) of loot on shelves in the room. There are three depressions on the forge in the shape of the rods from the constructs and the party inserts rods (in wrong order) and triggers a lightning trap. The correct order is found out (NOTE: I don’t recall how), and the vault opens up to reveal a load of treasure, including:
2 sacks
a vial that might be a potion
a map
4 gold ingots
3 more vials that are probably also types of potions
the thing we’re looking for
The party also takes loot from the room, including:
a potentially magical chain shirt
a mace & a rapier
three shields
Against the Warforged
A warforged surprises the party as they attempt to leave the cavern, attacking from hiding. (NOTE: I upped the warforged a lot, and we used a variant imitative system where it had a 45% ish chance of acting every turn). Zan asks: “What does House Cannith want the schema for?” The warforged responds: “My lord wants the schema; I don’t know why! I shall deliver it to him. Give it to me and you can leave unharmed.” Branstorm action surges at the warforged and uses second wind to heal 10. Zan gets downed but is then stabilized by one of the other party members. Warforged takes damage from Branstorm & Eko then tries to disengage. Branstorm pursues with light, and George tries to snipe the WF with a fire bolt. Branstorm cuts the enemy’s arm off and steals his sword. As the warforged dies, its Final Messenger flies away. Branstorm notices a sweet visor around his head & gives it to George, to whom it grants darkvision (but it must be attuned). George successfully attunes to visor and the party attempts a long rest but gets attacked by another giant rat. Then another beetle swarm. Eventually, the party rests. The party enters a final room back near the initial entrance to the area. It looks pristine, & like it used to be a temple. The party fills 3 healing potions from a fountain in the temple.
My thoughts:
Well, these notes are from 2+ months ago, so good luck on cogent thoughts! Once again, I think this was fun. Also, I used a product from DMSGUILD for a lot of the updating to 5e. I like these conversions!
I have to update all the loot and distribute it to the players, and frankly, I’m not sure what we will run next. Also, it is time for Zan’s disease to kick in, so I need to figure that out also. Lastly, I can’t say how much better solo fights are when the party doesn’t know if they will act next, or the party will. I really like using this alternative.
I’ve had 2 months to figure out what is next, and have no idea! I’m such a good DM……(it will start with returning the item to the Lady and dividing up the loot for sure, but after that?).