The Scouts Return

After they've been gone 11 hours, Lothar and Embla return.  They're pretty tired; the last hour they've had to force their way to get back to the camp, rather than falling asleep an hour away.

They've found an audience chamber.  It's empty of anything alive, but it's been built out of polished, worked limestone and possesses two enormous stone thrones, yet clearly built for something the size of a frogling, whose feet would be about 8 feet above the floor.  They've also seen a huge, disturbing freize, a carving more than thirty feet along one wall that depicts froglings driving humans along to a place where the humans are shoved off a cliff.

The audience chamber is about two hundred feet up and about two miles away; but the way is easy going.  According to the images, apparently humans were driven along this ledge as some sort of sacrifice.  The bones were then retrieved and returned upstairs, where they were collected in the bone room.

There was writing in the room the scouts could not read.

The tunnel continues past the audience chamber; but this is as far as Lothar and Embla got.  It took a little more than four hours to reach it, at full move.  It would take the whole party twice that long.

Lothar and Embla need to rest.  They've eaten two pounds of raw food while gone, but they could use a hot meal if that were possible.  They need another two pounds each to be sated.

An Odd Sight

Okay, writing a new post to settle these time confused issues.

Embla and Lothar are gone, out ahead.  Fjall will eat half rations with the rest of the party.  I'm under the impression that no one is eating full rations and everyone is at full hit points.  Please correct me if I'm wrong.

Rob falls asleep after the scouts go on ahead.  The rest of the party talk for awhile, but even that gets tiresome.  You burn the lantern low, to keep watch, so the fuel only diminishes at half its rate.

As I count it, we'll call it that you've gone through one flask of oil by the time the scouts left.  You go through another two ounces, which lasts you 7 and a half hours, during which time you see no sign of the scouts.  You each settle into your place along the wall, keeping the edge as far away as possible, at a place where the ledge is flat and about nine feet wide.

Rob ... you're lying on your side as you wake up, facing away from the party.  The party is quiet.  Fjall is gently snoring.  Engelhart is mumbling over a favorite sermon he studied in the seminary.  Mikael is dozing.

As Rob opens his eyes, feeling tired to his bones and not really anxious to move and get up, he sees something unexpected.  It is a very slow burning flame, floating about one inch above the surface of the stone ledge, about three inches high ... and about a foot from his eyes.  The flame is the color of an aquamarine gem.  It gives no light, except in itself.

It Feels Like You've Been All Day at This

After the collapsed bridge, you begin to climb.  And climb.  And climb.  At a certain point, several of the members will realize that their feet hurt, most acutely ... the sort of hurt they are used to feeling at the end of a long day's march.

Someone asks, "What time is it, do you think?"  And no one has an answer.  You're pretty hungry.  There's no where to stop and sit, except this ledge, which is about six to ten feet wide, and sometimes uncomfortably sloped towards the edge.

The big cavern changes shape as you walk along, but it is a whole lot bigger than a five hundred feet wide.  It appears to continue on for miles; and because of the dark, and the damp, and the changing drift of the ledge, and the knowledge that a fifty to one hundred foot drop is just a few feet away, this is taking time.

Your action?

Delving Along the Tunnel

As the party remembers, you have come to a place where the stream is running through a crevice/rut about 7 to 10 feet deep.  There is only a left-hand route along the edge.  The tunnel seems to be drifting steadily to the right, with the stream in the bottom steadily growing in depth.

You come to the place where the wooden plank leans against a wall.  Nothing has been disturbed throughout this journey, from when you were here yesterday, except that a tick carcass has been half-devoured, and the zombrat carcasses have decayed quite a lot.  The shrieker and jelly are both much desiccated.

It is about noon, what with preparations before leaving; but you're not absolutely certain of that time.

Planning Outside Mimmarudla

Morning, 9am, Wednesday, May 11, 1650.  Weather, cool, a moderate breeze is moving the small branches on the trees and stirring up a little dust from the camp.  There a few small clouds, scudding their way across the sky.  The moon is a day from becoming a half moon.

The party has been camped in Oddsdrakken's tent, which the party obtains by default.  I need the party to remove a total of 48 lbs. from their food supply, for everything you've eaten since yesterday morning, when we last assessed.

What action do you wish to take now?

Resupply

It is Tuesday afternoon, still the 10th of May.

As you settle into some food, talking to the Overseer, let's say that the general story is told.  The Overseer will explain that when the called for clean up crew showed up, he sent them home, saying the problem had been sorted.  You're the official clean-up crew now ... and the Overseer does want to know for sure that you're going to do your jobs.

Given that there is legitimacy, from your story, and the look of your wounded comrades, that there is danger, he lets you know that the fee for cleaning up a situation like this is typically 300 g.p., plus plunder.

"When are you going back in?" He'll ask.  "I can help a little with supplies, but I'm afraid beyond a few tools and food, there's not much I can offer up front.  I can probably set you up enough that you don't have to seek out supplies in Stavanger."

The Stone Block

The party turns a corner and hears the spattering of water on rock; it is not long after that they come to a place where the stream drops in a series of little water falls, a fall of about seven feet.  The path on left side of the stream continues as a shelf-like path, hanging over the shallow crevice of the stream.  The crevice goes on out of sight, deepening the path of the cavern as it cuts its way further into the subterranean.

The path on the right ends, with a large stone-carved block, about ten feet deep and six feet high.  It is not possible to outwardly identify its purpose, only to say that it is definitely not natural.  It was clearly worked and smoothed, though not perfectly so, into a rectangular piece of stone.  On inspection, you see that it is inscribed with further writing.

Mikael's ability to comprehend languages is quickly running out.  He has only two or three minutes left before he will have to wait until the next day, to cast the spell again.

The Way Down

I'm going to forego making a map.

Through the west entrance, past the shrieker room, Engelhart will find that a short tunnel, but fifteen feet long, opens into a sloped shaft, about 30 feet wide and 15 feet tall, like an elongated letter box slot that drops diagonally into the deep.  At his feet, a switchback path, four feet wide, will start off towards the right, make a hairpin turn and descend to the left, at a 30-40 degree angle downwards. There's no railing, but a fall would be along a steep slope to the path below as it switched back again; perhaps 4d6 in damage.

The stone floor of the path is dry, cut from the natural stone, but has cut stone tiles placed along the outer edge of the path, to make the path level to the edge.

There's a slight breeze, cool, drifting up from below, which makes but a faint impression on your face as you feel it.  Certainly nothing to make a descent difficult.

It is painfully quiet, particularly after the shouting match of the fight.

Round 16 ~ Two Left

The zombrat in 0912 attacks Pandred.  It rolls a 19 and causes 6 damage.

The other remaining zombrat attacks Engelhart.  It misses with a 12.

The players can act.  No one is stunned.

The rats die in the players' move.  Here is the FINAL x.p.

Round 15 - The Party Forges On

The zombrats above attack Rob and Valda.

Against Rob, the zombrat rolls a 17.  This will cause 7 damage, mauling rob and driving him back into hex 1113.

The rat against Valda hits AC 5, with a 14 ... the zombrat will cause 2 damage.  Valda lives, but it stuns and leaves her in 1011.

I'll remember to mark them this round.  Neither rat will advance.

The players can act now.

After the player's moves, the positions are as follows:

And the experience so far.

Round 14 - More Zombrats

The last two rat bodies tranform into zombrats, like before.

The one zombrat attacks Mikael, rolling a 12 and hitting AC 8.  Unless I miss my guess, Mikael's dexterity is 16, giving him an AC of 8, having no armor options.  That should hit.  Being a zombie, it does more potential damage than a giant rat: but I roll 3 damage.

The monster in front of Embla and Rob vanishes.  It simply ceases to be in the room.

The players may act.

After the players move, the positions are as follows:

And the experience:

Round 13 ~ The Party is Fine

The zombrat in 12ll attacks Valda, rolling a natural 1.  Followed by another natural 1.  Because the zombrat isn't using a weapon, it impales itself on the end of Valda's sword.  Turns out, Valda was combat effective; just by standing there, she was something the zombrat could kill itself on.

The other zombrat rolls a 6 and misses Mikael.

Bad, bad round for DMs.  Hmpf.  Round 13.

The slime-feces creature is stunned and takes no action.

Following the party's move, the positions are:

And the experience:

Round 12 ~ Didn't We Just Kill Those?

Mikael should have been moved to 1311 last round.  Please treat him as existing in that hex.

The creature now seems to be sweating wet, watery defecation out of its skin. It swings with its fist at Lothar, and rolls a 2. Again.

And for no explicable reason, the dead rat bodies in 1111, 1109 and 0710 suddenly animate into creatures of undead flesh.  They cannot attack at this time.

The players can act (sorry, forgot to remove the lines from the previous round's move).

After the players have moved, and stumbled over one another and the DM's bad bookkeeping, the map looks like this:

And experience so far:

Round 11 ~ It Jumps

Once again, the jelly is stunned; and when stunned, it shrinks, and causes no incidental damage.

[It's worth noting that the combat system has to be flexible to manage a multitude of creatures.  While a stunned elephant would stumble and swing around, perfectly able to cause incidental damage, a jelly that responds to stunning shrinks and does not swing around.  In the same way, an elephant, or a single-unit jelly can be stunned; while a pudding or an ooze, which flows like a liquid and is not bound together with tendrils, cannot be stunned, no matter how much damage is done.  On some level, each monster demands a case by case basis to explain its behaviour and effect.

[This can seem like I'm changing the rules at a whim ... but rather, I'm trying to establish precedents for weird cases.  I expect players to say, "That jelly you had us fight before did this and this ... therefore this jelly today should also act like that."  And I agree.  D&D is complicated; memory and precedent is the only thing that binds it together].

Whatever the creature is that was in 0411 is now in 1312.  It attacks Valda, rolling a 2.  Valda, shocked, manages to dodge the half-hearted attempt of the creature to hit her.

She sees that it's skin is covered with slowly flowing green-brownish mud; and that it gives off a smothering, putrid odor, like a shut outhouse in sweltering summer weather.  The smell has no mechanical effects, but it is suffocating.

The players can act.

After their move, the positions look like:

And experience thus far:

Round 10 ~ Breathing Room

The jelly withdraws following Pandred's hit, the blow undulating through it's body.  Because of the withdrawal, no incidental damage is caused. The creature does not attack.

At the same time, the rat attacks Englehart's flank, rolling a modified 17 and nipping the cleric for another 1 point of damage.

The remaining rats flee the room.

The party is free to act.

Mikael has finished casting his spell; Rob is free of his back pack.  Valda will slowly crawl to her feet in 1212.

Following the player's move, the map looks like this:

And experience:

Round 9 ~ Valda Takes the Heat

The rats have initiative.  They keep their ground, except one that annoyingly rushes in and nips Engelhart from behind.  It hits AC4 with a modified 17, causing 2 more damage.  I see I've forgotten the 1 damage I did to Engelhart before. That has been fixed, and will show on the next XP table.  The cleric isn't stunned.

That's the only rat attack.

The jelly causes 1 damage to both Engelhart and Valda.  No one else is close enough.

Then the jelly uses this round to attack Valda.  It rolls a 16, which hits; Valda takes 9 damage.  This reduces her to -3 hit points.  At -4, she would be dead.  She fails her wisdom check, staggers into Lothar's hex and collapses, unconscious.

The players can act.

Following the players' move, here is the position:

And the amount of experience thus far:

Round 8 ~ The Jelly Makes Itself Known

The rats win initiative against the jelly and proceed to scatter.  One doesn't move, but watches the jelly.  All except for two, next to Engelhart.  One tries to press past the cleric and succeeds; it attacks Pandred, rolling an 8 and missing.

The other attacks the cleric and hits with an 18, causing 1 damage.

Meanwhile, the jelly simply rolls over the stunned rat, sucking it up into its body.  It flows unexpectedly quickly towards Lothar, and as it does, it forms a pseudopod with the front of its body like a lifted club, swinging at the ranger.  And it rolls a natural 20.  Some days the dice are good to me.

It causes 3d4 damage on such a hit; Lothar takes 16 damage, the blow breaking the skin across the bone of Lothar's knee.  The ranger falls back into 1111.

That is my action.  The players can move now.

Following the player's actions, here are the positions.

And the gain in experience:

Round 7 ~ A New Guest

From top to bottom, Engelhart is attacked by two rats, and keeps out one of those that tries to sneak past him.  A 15 misses, and a natural 20, doubled, causes 6 damage.  Engelhart had 30 hp, now 24, and is not stunned.  Hurt, though.

Valda is attacked by one rat, which she stops from getting past her.  The rat misses with a 4.

Lotharis attacked by two rats, which he keeps from breaking through.  A 14 hits, as Lothar is AC 8 according to my notes, causing 1 damage.   Lothar has 28 hit points and is not stunned.  The other rat rolls a 10 and misses.

Embla lets a rat get past her; it attacks from her flank, while another attacks from the front. The one on her flank manages a modified 9, missing.  The one in front rolls a 12, also missing.

Rob is attacked from the front; the rat does not try to get past.  It rolls a 14, which hits AC 7.  I am not certain of Rob's armor class, as I haven't had time to look at any character pages.  Please let me know whether or not that hits.

MEANWHILE ...

A large, grey, jelly-like creature, definitely not an ooze, emerges from 0612 and flows into 0711.  It has a large membrane at its center.

The players are free to take an action.

Following the players' move, here is the layout.

And the experience thus far:

Round 6 - In the Thick of Rats

The map above only shows lines for rats that have moved four or less and are able to attack this round.  Embla, Valda and Pandred will each be attacked once; Lothar, twice.

A 9 misses Embla.

A 12 and a 4 miss Lothar.

A 6 misses Valda.

A 17 misses Pandred.

All the rats will be in a position to fill the gaps next round.  Because rats are small, there is a chance that they can get through the line and attack in back of it; characters in the front line will have to make a dexterity check to stop them from overrunning the front line.

At the same time, you will note that Rob and Mikael have appeared on the map.  These are two lackluster fellows who have taken work on the gangs in the dungeon, out of sheer boredom.  When they heard that there was a party exploring a cave deeper in the frogling lair, they decided to follow along and see what's what.  They've followed the direction of Fjall above, met Oddsdrakken running through the Pit Room away from the fight and now they've walked in just as the fight is happening.

A last, interesting point.  The party hears a deep, slushing sound, as though a very large bladder has been filled with water and then burst.  Lothar places the sound somewhere ahead of him, and off to the left, where the cavern floor is broken up and dark, from inches-high rock ridges along the floor.

The party is now free to act.

Following the party's action, the map now looks like this:

I'm starting a new experience table; the bonus XP from the first part of the fight would not be enjoyed by the newcomers, so this is a reset.  At the end of the fight, you'll add the tables together.

Round 5 ~ The Rats Rush In

The rats rushing in are moving faster than the characters can run.  Rats move at 6 hexes per round.

Embla should take note that she does not have her axe in hand at this time.

The players may take what actions they will.  Likely, there won't be time to cast a spell before being attacked ~ though players might be able to isolate Engelhart if they move in front of the cleric.

Giant rats have an intelligence of 2.  This means they can experience a morale failure individually, but not as a group (a wounded rat will probably flee, but rats will pay no attention to the deaths of other rats).

Following the player's move, the map looks like this.  There are 13 rats left.

And the experience:

Shrieker Round 4 ~ Something New

Showing a portion of the room ... the shrieker is still alive, still breathing, sucking in air through gaps of its bladder-like body and blowing them out through the mouth on top of its head.

Once again, Engelhart escapes the incidental damage, and once again Lothar takes 3.  Embla takes 2.

Something new ... Embla tilts her head a half second before taking an attack; then realizes what it is she had just heard.

There are rats coming.

The party is free to act.

The shrieker dies.  Here is the party's XP so far:

Shrieker Round 3 ~ And Spongy, Too

The creature undulates as though it is in pain, but it continues to scream nonetheless, as this is a reflex.  Engelhart's Beast Forms ability tells you that the creature's scream is designed to draw creatures to the shrieker, to create a melee that results in death and carrion.

Pandred will take 1 damage from incidental damage.  Lothar gets hit hard with one of the creature's arms, taking 3 damage.  Engelhart takes none.

The players are free to act.

Shrieker Round 2 - Big & Passive

The shrieker has no direct attacks.  However, it is big, and it flails around, so there is a chance of incidental damage.  None occurs this round, however ... and the shrieker, still screaming, retreats one hex to 1210.

When giving your moves, please carefully note which hex your fellow character is moving into.  Pandred, don't forget Oddsdrakken; and Lothar shouldn't forget Valda.

The players are free to act.

Shrieker

Sorry, cuts off Embla and Oddsdrakken.

Pandred falls into the room; and before he can breathe, or catch his balance, a nine-foot-tall shrieker begins to wail at the top of its inordinately evolved lungs.

The shrieker makes no attack, so the party has initiative.

Sorry, I keep forgetting things.  The brown-grey swirls in the room are floor-to-ceiling stalactites/mites.  Those hexes cannot be entered.