Session 32: “Return of the Brain Eater”
The party returned to the keep to discover dreadful news: the Brain Eater which Addy spoke to back in session 18 managed to sneak through portal security disguised as a basket of produce. It got to Addy’s girlfriend, punctured a hole in her skull, and managed to suck out quite a bit of brain before the guards drove it off into the wilderness. Eloise is alive, but she does little other than eat what she’s fed, walk where she’s led, and sleep. No magic known to the keep can restore her, but the wizard Fon was able to offer some hope. Fon had heard of a town called Oakhurst which occasionally produced magic fruits capable of curing any ailment. He suggested the party take their rest in the keep (Eloise was stable, after all), then set out there.
HAVEN TURN:
Cozyglow gave 100g to the church for the care of local orphans, and made a point of spending some time with the orphans, buying them little trinkets. She also spent a month carousing with local tweens, slipping them booze on the sly. She managed to hire a young middle class kid named Pularch as a porter. Ecco spend a month bonding with Bluepie, getting her a tiny suit of armor and a spear, teaching her to hunt with it, so that she could better defend herself if attacked in future. He also got a cloak of raven feathers and boar quills made for himself. Glint spent a month hanging out with Hibub, trying to shift their relationship to be a little more equitable, and teaching Hibub some basics of wilderness survival and bear country livin’
RECAP
The party set out for Oakhurst. It was a 5 day journey back towards civilization along a main road, then two days along a smaller country road to reach the town.
From talking with folks along the way and in town, the party learned the fruit is produced once a year, sold to the town by goblins who come from a nearby crevice, in a place they call “The Sunless Citadel” This year’s fruit was given to a woman suffering a terrible cancer. Like every year the town planted the seeds from the fruit. It’s currently in a special gated garden, and under guard, because each year the goblins sneak into town and steal the plant before it can bear fruit.
The party spoke to Corky, the local priest, who answered their basic questions about the town. Cozyglow made a deal with nosey gossip Bola the Innkeeper to use her kitchen to make a pie for the goblins. Glint went to speak with local constable Roda, a surly gal who didn’t think terribly much of adventurers, and warned that goblins like to ambush folks. She also told the party all about some local kids–Talgen and Sharwyn–who got tangled up with some adventurer types from out of town and went down into the Sunless Citadel a month back. Dumb kids. Probably got themselves killed.
Early the next morning the party set out through the abandoned countryside. At the crevice they found a knotted rope, and climbed it one by one down to a sandy ledge. Glint, in the lead, was attacked by dire rats, but was able to hurl them off the ledge and ensure the rest of the party’s safe descent. After heading down a trecherous staircase, the party found themselves atop a crenelated battlement for a whole citadel that had fallen into the earth. They approached a door leading inside, fell through a trap door, them climbed out and entered—THE SUNLESS CITADEL.
Session 33: “Disabling the alarm with 10 minutes of hammering!”
The party plunged into the dungeon proper, exploring room-to-room in a good old dungeon crawly fashion. In several places they encountered large stone doors with draconic imagery carved in them. They chose to avoid tinkering with any of these for the time being. A few rooms into the dungeon they met a distraught Kobold named Meepo. She first tried to run from the party, but fearing that she might be off to summon warriors, the group restrained and talked to her. They learned that she was sad because goblins had stolen the baby dragon which the Kobolds were raising in the hopes that it might someday grow into their god. Meepo had been the dragon’s caretaker, and all the other kobolds were angry with her for failing to protect it adequately.
When the party said they’d happily return the dragon to the kobolds if they found it, Meepo was eager to join them. She took up a spear and led the way towards goblin territory.
(As an aside, the party learned that this kobold tribe was related to the one from the Caves of Chaos. They’d emigrated from there in Meepo’s grandparent’s time.)
Meepo was only able to lead the party a short way before they’d gone further into Goblin territory than she’d ever gone before. The poked around in some empty rooms before reaching a door with some nails pocking out. Thinking they were disabling a trap, the party banged the nails out from the back side. Unfortunately, the nails were mounting a bell, so all the noise they made kinda undercut the disabling of the trap. Beyond the door was a room filled with caltrops, and a half-height wall on the other side. After a failed ambush by a pair of goblin archers, the party got into a parley.
First they pretended to buy some goblin grog. Then they doused the goblin who came over to deliver it, and threatened to set him on fire. Their hostage was more than willing to help, but the goblin that was still safe on the other side seemed quite willing to sacrifice his comrade’s life. The party learned of another way into Goblin territory (filled with Kobold traps, which the goblins lied about, but which Meepo clarified). While the conversation was happening, Addelaide managed to sneak across the room and smash the empty goblin grog bucket onto the others head. He tried to flee, ran into a wall, and knocked himself unconscious.
Session 34: “He was being a hero, but we beat that outta him.”
The party got their two goblin captives under control, then sent the more compliant, booze-doused one into the next room to talk with the goblins there. After some meandering goblin chit chat, the party pounced and managed to add another 3 captive goblins to their retinue. Cozyglow got the goblins under control (or something resembling control), and pressganged them into leading the way further into the dungeon.
In the next room, the group found a barrel of Elf Pudding. Wob mixed in an ooze concoction he’d been working on, and some caltrops collected from the goblin’s ambush room, and rolled the barrel along as the party pressed onwards.
As the party passed a room where the goblins said they were keeping their captive dragon, Meepo wondered why they were delaying the rescue. Glint reassured her by muttering back into his backpack that it would be easier to free the dragon once the party had suitably disrupted the goblin’s operations. Meepo reluctantly agreed to trust the party on this.
Under duress, the goblins continued to lead the party towards their chief. As the group prepared for battle, the goblin captives were instructed to tackle the cleric (their former chief) while the party killed the hobgoblin chief and returned the cleric to power. Instead, the goblins ran in shouting “Humans behind us! To arms! Humans behind us!”
They then ran from the chief’s room through another door into the main goblin living space, where they roused everyone there to battle. That area had a door leading into the hallway behind the party, and so they found themselves in the middle of a potentially very deadly pincer.
Leaping to action, Cozyglow entered the main goblin living space and attempted to intimidate them into staying out of the fight. Wob aided her by rolling his barrel into the room, with its contents now animated and instructed to burst out into a murderous frenzy. Bulgurd also charged into the fray with his dagger and killed a goblin after being taunted about his masculinity by a very creepy Blupie. The rest of the party pushed into the chief’s room, quickly killing two hobgoblins and one goblin bandit.
Next session will begin with an initative roll, and the second round of combat!
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Wob’s Ooze:
-A barrel of Elf Pudding
-Rusty caltrops
-water
-corn starch
-A buncha wax
-The powder of the hag killed in session 31
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DISPOSITION OF COMBAT:
Durnn and Grenl standing on the far side of the pit.
3 Goblin Bandits, 1 Hobgoblin blocking entryway.
Glint, Hibub, and Addelaide pushing into room.
Ecco, Ornoc in hallway.
Pularch and Wob backing down the hallway to safety
Cozyglow flying in the Cathedral
Bulgurd rushing into cathedral with dagger
Wob’s ooze rolling into cathedral in barrel
Cathedral contains 38 uninjured goblins arming themselves, 9 uninjured hobgoblins, and one hobgoblin with -2hp from cozyglow’s spear.
Referee’s note to self: Don’t forget about Room 36
Session 35: “The ooze, of course, cannot be stopped.”
The session picked up mid-combat. The group in the throne room managed to overwhelm the defenders in that space quickly. Meepo even got in a real good stab out from Glint’s backpack. By the time Hobgoblins started pushing into the room from the cathedral living space, the party had managed to push the chief Hobgoblin into the luminous pit, and drop a dagger into his spine. The Goblin Cleric–who at first seemed unwilling to listen to Ecco’s claims that they were here to reinstate her as chief–slipped out into the cathedral living space while the party wrapped up with the HobGobbos.
Out in the cathedral, the battle didn’t go quite so well for the party. Though no one was killed, Bulgurd was dealt several disfiguring blows after running into the fray, and Ornoc was hit by a number of arrows which cut her up pretty bad as well. Cozyglow kept the goblins partially contained by dropping a line of caltrops from the air, while the spike-filled, hag-powder-driven ooze became a real terror, entirely dissolving those who attacked it, none of whom could figure out how to harm it. Predictably the prideful Hobgoblins pushed their way to the front of the battle lines, and were the first cut down by the party. This gave Grenl the Goblin Cleric/Former Chief the opportunity to reassert her authority, calling for a cessation of hostilities.
The ooze, of course, could not be stopped, so the party demanded that the goblins retreat into an adjacent room. Since the ooze was ordered to kill all goblins and hobgoblins in the cathedral, it did not follow them. The space the goblins had been forced into was so terribly cramped that Grenl had to climb on top of the crowded heads to speak to the party through the door.
Acting as though they had more control over the ooze than they did, the party demanded all sorts of information from the goblins. They learned that the druid worked below, constantly fussing over his plants and his tree, feeding people to them, and only giving the goblins two pieces of fruit each year to distribute on the surface. (So what if the goblins sold them? So long as it got distributed, the druid didn’t seem to mind.) The druid apparently takes goblins down to work for him occasionally, but has never liked Grenl much (clerics and druids, you know how it is). They also gave the party directions on where to find the dragon, though they insisted the dragon was happier with the goblins than it was with the Kobolds.
The party scouted down the luminous pit, and discovered a great big compost heap being turned by nonviolent, unresponsive, animated skeletons. Before exploring further they demanded the goblins make a map for them.
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Injuries:
Bulgurd is at 0hp & 2Pain. His dominant arm was crushed, and may never heal properly.
Ornoc is at 0hp & 2Pain. Her nose was completely obliterated by a stray arrow, and another pierced her hand through the palm.
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Loot:
7 small dragon statues (Claimed by Cozyglow)
Coins and gems totalling 836 silver pieces (209sp/xp each)
Scroll of KNOCK
Potion of Cat’s Grace (Claimed by Addelaide)
Session 36: “Another dungeon under new management”
Wob’s Slime Check: 7
Further interrogation of the goblins led the party back a few rooms through the dungeon to where the baby White Dragon was being kept (Meepo was very happy to see Woobie again!), and to where a number of prisoners were being held: four kobolds which the party pressganged into being Meepo’s underlings on her return journey to her people, a new PC named Rayclin the Youth Pastoradin, and his companion: a weary-boned gnome named Erky Timbers. From here the party moved towards the dungeon’s lower level as depicted in the goblin map. Based on a melted door and slime trail, Wob’s slime has gone rogue, and gone down to the depths ahead of them.
Unsurprisingly the rudimentary goblin map didn’t appear to quite accurately depict the lower levels, but by going towards the area labelled “Work,” the party did indeed find an area with 6 rooms branching off it, where a number of goblins were at work. Moving quietly they covered each door, and Ecco did his Ecco thing. Zogo was elected Spokesgoblin. He didn’t know much more about the druid’s schemes than the goblins upstairs did, but he endeared himself to the party enough that Cozyglow gifted him with a candle inscribed with her cutiemark: a sign that he had her and the party’s approval. As the party left, it looked as though Zogo was riling up his companions to head upstairs and take charge of goblin society.
Beyond the goblin work space were a number of garden rooms, tended by a pair of Bugbears: Toggle the crusty, no-nonsense gardener, and his depressed and much less serious lover, Sawb. Toggle was in a foul mood already because Sawb was drunk (again), and because a fire worm had gotten into one of his grow ops and wrecked a bunch of planters.[3:06 PM]
He probably would have attacked the party if they hadn’t immediately offered to take care of the fire worm form him, which they did by boarding up the doorway so that when it was open the worm would be forced to exit at a very specific point. A round of stabby-stab was all it took to kill the worm, which Toggle butchered quickly before the intestines burst and the meat over-cooked itself. He let the party pass with a grumble about all the work he’d have to do un-boarding the door, but one gets the impression he’d find something to grumble about no matter what.
The party quickly scurried through the dragon room, unscathed by the great glowing dragon figure they passed there, and the session ended just as the party reached the opening into the druid’s grove.
Session 37: Holding buckets to Belack’s Head
After futzing about with a few goblins who never really had any chance to do more than annoy the party, the characters entered the Druid’s grove to discover that the ooze had warapped itself around a twisted evil tree. Three people who had been turned partially to wood had obviously tried to pull it off, and had their hands melted down to splinters in the process. Off to the side, a druid named Belak frantically tried to figure out how he could save his precious tree.
The party had the bright idea to dilute the ooze with water. Once they demonstrated this would work, Belak cast “Create Water” above the tree while the party formed a bucket brigaide to carry water from the nearby well. The party’s aid meant the druid didn’t have to expend many of his spells to dilute the ooze enough to cause it to slip off the tree. Before it could reconstitute itself the party gathered it up in several different buckets.
Belak offered to let them leave unharmed for their part in saving the tree, but the party wanted more. They wanted one of the healing fruits, and if they didn’t get it they were gonna kick the buckets over. Belak relented, gave the party an older, slightly withered healing fruit that he’d held on to in case of emergency, and asked that they leave him to tend his inujured tree. The party did. They carried the buckets as far as the giant compost heap before dumping them back out again.
The party more or less beelined it out of the dungeon at that point. They ignored the goblins squabbling about who should be leader now, and briefly stopped in on the Kobolds having a raucus drunken party.
The kobold leader directed them to where they could pick up a reward. Rather than take only a single treasure, the party took all of the Kobold’s treasures. On their way back out they also decided to free the dragon, since it didn’t seem to enjoy being the captive god of the Kobolds. Everyone, including Meepo, turned against the party for their trechery. But the kobolds were drunk and easily evaded as the party returned to the surface, and sunlight.
They told the town about Belak’s operation, and the wooden people who were probably their missing kids. The townsfolk were horrified, and determined that they ought to do something about the situation. The party advised them against messing with things, but if they INSISTED on getting involved in dungeoneering, the party gave them all the information they thought would be useful (presumably including drawing them a map, and telling them about the various political situations they left behind.)
Finally the party returned to the Keep on the Boarderlands, where Adelaide fed her injured ladyfriend the healing apple, and her mind was restored.
But…that mind eating creature is still out there…
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Future Hooks:
-How will Goblin society be affected by all this?
-Will the Ooze reconstitute? What will it do?
-Where will Wubbie the Dragon go?
-How do the Kobolds react to losing their God?
-Do the townsfolk go into the dungeon?
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LOOT: Quaal’s Feather Token (Tree), Scroll of Mage Armor, Scroll of Spider Climb, Scroll of Faerie Fire, Flask containing 3 doses of an herbal concoction that grants a +4 re-rolled saving throw against poison.