Montporte Dungeon Campaign Session 6 Notes

I haven't had much of a chance to blog...work has been crazy (we are rolling out a merger which, thankfully, doesn't involve job losses but it involves job changes plus working with hundreds of staff, clients, and thousands of donors, but I digress). I have 4 sessions of gaming to blog about--3 Majestic Wilderlands GURPS sessions and 1 Montporte Dungeon session. Today's post will cover the short Montporte Dungeon session we had on Monday night (using Blood & Treasure).

Cast of Characters
Adzeer Mattiu, Hunter of the First Circle (Half Orc, 1 Lvl Hunter): Tim (Gothridge Manor)
Duncan Kern (Gnome 1 lvl Wizard/Thief): Dan
Leif (Half-Elf, 1 Lvl Mage/Cleric/Trickster): Josh
Larramore “Little Larry” (Kobold, 1 lvl Marksman): NPC
Diana (Human, Torch Bearer, Goat Driver): NPC
3 cave goats

Map A (1 square = 5 feet)

The Session
At the end of Session 5, the brave adventurers had just finished off a group of giant rats (Room 1 on Map A above). The room looked like a kitchen. The corridor heading south out of the westernmost part of the south wall sloped downward, possibly promising access to a lower level. Unfortunately, the way was blocked by a very heavy portcullis. They continued to search for a way to open the portcullis, a search that had started in the previous session. Not finding a mechanism, they opted for brute strength, using a crowbar as a lever under the lowest portcullis crossbar. The portcullis budged but then stopped, as if it were locked in place or stuck.

Just as the party was giving up on the portcullis, two skeletons wandered into the room from the east. Little Larry and Adzeer quickly dispatched them. Adzeer then went east himself to make sure there was nothing else more dangerous behind them.

The party decided to move north out of the room. Duncan checked for traps on the door and, detecting nothing, moved aside so that Adzeer could open the door. A heavy stone swung from the ceiling on the other side of the door, but the rope snapped before the stone could do any damage. Based on the condition of the rope, the trap had been placed there quite a while ago.

Adzeer and Duncan moved north into the room (Room 2 on Map A above). There was a large sudsy puddle on the floor and Adzeer and Duncan were both overwhelmed with the stench of stale beer. Both became nauseous and struggled to draw their weapons. Adzeer noticed that the puddle was moving and rolled the large stone (from the door trap) into the room and through the puddle.

The puddle struck back at the stone and the party was confronted by two beer oozes. Adzeer and Duncan attacked but were hindered by nausea and weakness. Despite their condition, they were able to overcome the beer oozes, thanks in part to the initial damage done by Adzeer's bowling with the stone.

The room was filled with barrels, many of them rotted and broken. They did find a small bar of silver (worth 50 silver pieces) in one of the intact barrels. The barrels were otherwise empty. Of more interest was the door in the floor in the northeast corner of the room.

Adzeer lifted the door and could see a small 3' wide shaft descending down about 25 feet. Small metal rungs had been installed, which beckoned the party to descend. At the bottom of the shaft, the party found themselves at the north end of a narrow passage that headed due south (Area 3 on Map B below). The group discovered just how dexterous cave goats can be, as they descended down the rungs with no difficulty.

Map B (1 square = 5 feet)

The party moved south, noticing that the floor was slimy and covered with all sorts of rotting refuse and bones. As they continued south, the slime on the floor turned to mud then muck then a putrid pool. Duncan opted to take the lead by riding a goat into the water. The floor had a very shallow slope, creating a very shallow pool as a result.

As Duncan led the party south, he noticed a slimy brown pile of refuse about 3' tall, almost completely blocking their path (Area 4 on Map B above). He decided to shoot an arrow at it. The arrow glanced off the pile, doing no apparent harm. The pile, however, was not happy. Opening its many eyes and many mouths, it let loose with horrible gibbering sounds. Yikes! A gibbering mouther!

The gibbering din left Duncan and Little Larry confused and standing in a daze. Worse, Duncan's goat was also affected and, becoming enraged, started bucking to throw Duncan off. Adzeer rushed forward to attack. By the end of second round of combat, Adzeer had done no damage and had three mouths attached to him. The gibbering mouther was about to pull Adzeer down into the water when Duncan and Little Larry snapped out of their stupor.

Duncan let loose with a Color Spray. The spell left the gibbering mouther blind and stunned. Diana rushed forward with oil and a torch. The resultant fire severely damaged the creature and snapping it out of its stunned state. The gibbering mouther began to move north up the corridor, still blind but very much alive. A well-placed arrow by Little Larry and a Magic Missile from Lief finished off the scorched monster.

The Color Spray left Adzeer unconscious. After recovering his wits, Adzeer searched the muck around the corpse of the gibbering mouther. He stirred the water and mud with a spear butt and turned up a ring (still on the finger bone) and something that looked like a pane of glass. A Detect Magic and the Lens of Melnar identified the ring as the Ring of Elsot, a +1 protectiveness ring (+2 versus elementals) that also gives the bearer the ability to see up to 40' in total darkness (including darkness spells).

The mysterious "pane of glass."

The "pane of glass" was another story. A Detect Magic revealed only that the object possessed a very bizarre form of magic and the Lens of Melnar gave no additional information. The object looked like it was made of glass, as it was transparent, but it was lighter in weight. It felt like a small piece of wood (it was about 3" x 5" in size). It had three silvery disks embedded in it. On closer examination, each disk looked like it had considerable depth to it, despite being embedded in a 1/4" thick object.

Not finding a quick answer to the problem of the mysterious object, the party opted to move south and found themselves on dry land at the south end of the corridor (Area 5 on Map B above). There, they found another set of rungs and a shaft leading upward to another door. This door was on the floor of another room (Room 6 on Map C below).

Map C (1 square = 5 feet)

Conclusion
We ended the session at this point, with the adventurers entering the room via a door in its floor. The map below (Map D) shows the the starting point for the session (Room 1) and where it ended (Room 6).

Map D (1 square = 5 feet)