Montporte Session 3 Notes

A few of the players were unable to make the session because of work and family commitments. We also sent Josh packing after realizing he had promised his daughter he would play video games with her. After sending him on his way, we were down to two players: Tim (Gothridge Manor) and Bard (The Clash of Spear on Shield). We quickly dispensed with the usual pre-game chatter and jumped into the dungeon.

Cast of Characters
Adzeer Mattiu, Hunter of the First Circle (Half Orc, 1 Lvl Hunter): Tim
Dante Rathburn (Human, 1 Lvl Warlock): Bard
Spensol (Human, Soldier 1 Lvl Fighter): NPC
Ian (Human, Soldier 1 Lvl Fighter): NPC
Diana (Human, Torch Bearer, Goat Driver): NPC
Larramore “Little Larry” (Kobold, 1 lvl Marksman): NPC

The Map 

1 Square=5 feet

The Session
Session 3 started where Session 2 left off—the party had defeated four jinomes (undead gnomes) in the corridor (Area 1 on the map) through the clever use of caltrops. Adzeer Mattiu could see the door to the east and decided that was the direction they need to go. This led them into a large room (Area 2 on the map).

This room (Area 2) was filled with the remnants of long low wooden tables and benches, laid out in rows (like a cafeteria, to use a metagame description). The tables and benches were simple but very well made, of heavy construction. There was a prayer, written in an archaic version of the Dwarven tongue, on the west wall of the room:
   Ye gods and goddesses
   Fathers and mothers from of olde
   Bless these thine gifts
   That they may strengthen us
   To do thine work in this life
   And in the life to come
There was also something written with large letters on  the east wall of the room. The party recognized that it was in the Gnome language, but no one in the group was able to read it. The room was searched and there was nothing of note in the room outside of a lot of food/beverage stains on tables (mainly on the west side of the room).

The party then moved through the door into the next room to the east (Area 3 on the map). The party found a dead jinome (undead gnome) lying on the floor in the southeast area of the room. They cautiously moved over to the that area of the room to inspect the body. They discovered it had four small arrows in it. There were also another half dozen arrows lying on the floor of the room. Based on the pattern of arrows, Dante guessed that the arrows were shot from the corridor in the south wall of the room.

Adzeer Mattiu carefully peeked around the corner of the southern corridor and looked south. He was able to a portion of another room (Area 4 on the map). He could see a some bodies lying on the floor—a dead kobold, a dead jinome, and some sort of white furry lump. There was the smell of livestock wafting down the short corridor. He could also hear a soft bleating, “Baah baah baah.”

The party slowly and carefully moved down the corridor from Area 3 to the room in Area 4. This room had the remnants of wooden beds and straw-filled mattresses, with something in the Gnome language written on the walls. Of more immediate concern were the dead bodies on the floor—seven kobold corpses, four more jinomes, and the body of a cave goat. All had met a violent end. Even an uninformed observer would recognize the obvious battle scene from the evidence.

As the party searched the room, the most obvious items were the three small round boats (coracles), each made of a light wood frame and covered in waterproofed skins. Two of the boats were severely damaged but one was still seaworthy (using the word “sea” in the broadest sense possible).

The group also discovered three live cave goats in the corner, each with saddle bags filled with provisions and equipment. There was lots of palatable food, waterskins, 8 paddles, and 4 inflated sealed bladders. A search of the bodies uncovered a small amount of coins, two vials, and 8 daggers (one made much better than the other seven). Using the Lens of Melnar, Dante identified the two vials to be potions—water breathing and healing draught (1d4). Dante’s Detect Magic spell did detect a dweomer with a bit of kick to it on the dagger.

Adzeer Mattiu was the first one in the group to notice the trail of kobold blood heading out of the small corridor in the southern portion of the west wall in Area 4. It led to a door (Area 5 on the map). He tried the door and found it secured from the inside. Adzeer Mattiu shouted through the door a command to surrender (in Kobold). After a bit of conversation, the door was opened revealing yet another dungeon restroom and a wounded kobold. Adzeer Mattiue healed the kobold, whose named turned out to be Larramore. He was dubbed “Little Larry,” given a bite to eat, and was invited to join the party.

Little Larry explained that he and his party were looking for an ancient sacred area of some sort, long held to be important to the kobolds. They knew very little about it or its location, but had surmised that it might be in the Montporte Dungeon. Little Larry also had crude map, with descriptions written in Kobold. Adzeer Mattiu was able to read and translate the map.

Using the statue with the gas trap as the point of reference, the party determined that they had lost contact with the orcs by travelling too far north and east. They decided to retrace their footsteps back to the statue (between Areas 6 & 7 on the map) and then head south. At this point, the party included two player characters (Adzeer Mattiu and Dante Rathburn); two NPC henchmen (Spensol and Ian) carrying a boat; a rescued prisoner, now acting as a torchbearer and goat driver (Diana); an NPC kobold (Little Larry); and three cave goats.

Along the way, the group encountered a gelatinous cube, almost running into it before seeing it (Area 6 on the map). Dante’s quick use of flaming oil burned the cube, leaving in its place a pile of detritus. There were lots of bones, rocks, pebbles, and pottery fragments to sort through but their efforts paid off. They found 22 silver bars (50 s.p. each) and 2 gold bars (50 g.p. each), plus a tarnished simple copper ring and slightly singed scroll inside a bone case (no one in the party could read it).

The party carefully moved south past the statue so as to not trigger the gas trap to Area 7. They decided to explore the corridors to the east before opening the two doors on the west wall. The corridor opened up into a large room with the remains of human-sized bunks (Area 8 on the map). The north and south walls were covered with frescoes. Though heavily water-damaged, the party could see clouds, rocks, flames, and waves, similar to the decorations in the huge room they discovered at the end of Session 1.

They searched the beds as they went and found a small bone scroll case with a fold up piece of papyrus paper. While the writing suffered a lot of water damage, the legible portions were written in archaic Common and described some daily activities, such as study of the Elements, learning from the Master Teachers, purity of the Soul, and discipline of the Mind.

Just as they finished reading it, they heard some scraping scuttling sounds to the east and continued to move into the room. They caught a glimpse of two large insect creatures moving away from them. They followed the sounds around the corner at the east end of Area 8 and caught up with 2 bombardier beetles in Area 9. These were quickly dispatched.

The party then moved back into the corridor and opened the two doors on the west wall, revealing two more potty rooms (Areas 10 & 11). Dante checked out the clay pots beneath the hole in each seat and was rewarded with a silver bar (50 s.p. value) in Area 10. Adzeer Mattiu was horrified by Dante’s explorations of the chamber pots, letting Dante know in no uncertain terms that Dante was not to touch the party’s food.

The parade of people, goats and boat moved south and past through the door into Area 12. There they found a dead spider and a dead orc in the middle of the room and two live giant spiders in a web in the southeast corner. After some very poorly executive attempts by Dante to use flaming oil, the spiders moved from the web toward to the party and they met together in a pitiful exhibition of melee on both sides. Finally, despite themselves, the party killed off the two spiders.

They looked west into the corridor leading out of Area 12. It was filled almost to the ceiling with rocks. They looked like they had been piled there recently and matched up with what the party had discovered during Session 1 (also labeled Area 12, quite coincidentally). The party realized that they could crawl over the pile back into the area held by the orcs. And with this knowledge, Session 3 came to an end.

You can check out Tim's recap of the session here and Bard's headline version here.