The Rusty Battle Axe: Montporte Dungeon Campaign Session 13 Notes

Cast of Characters

Adzeer Mattiu, Hunter of the First Circle (Half Orc, 3 Lvl Hunter): Tim (Gothridge Manor)
Duncan Kern (Gnome, 2 Lvl Wizard/Thief): Dan
Dante Rathburn (Human, 3 Lvl Warlock): Chris (The Clash of Spear on Shield)
Luven Lightfinger (Human, 2 Lvl Thief): Rob (Bat in the Attic)
Larramore “Little Larry” (Kobold, 2 Lvl Marksman): NPC
Ansarkhan ("Mushroom Man", 2 Lvl Fighter): NPC
Diana (Human, Torch Bearer, Goat Driver): NPC
3 cave goats

Map A (1 square = 5 feet)

The Session
Session 13 began where Session 12 left off, with the brave adventurers on Level 2 of the Montporte Dungeon.They were confronted with a number of choices in Room 1 (Map 1 above), 4 unexplored doors plus a spiral stairway leading up.

The matter was put on hold as Luven heard footsteps coming through the northern door on the east wall. He started to open the door and had some help from the other side of the door. Coming into the room were three of the armored guys (they had met one in Session 12). Behind them was a figure in a black cloak and hood, similar to the ones they had seen in Session 7 and Session 12. In this case, however, the figure was much smaller and obviously feminine [I used a token with a woman's face on it in Roll20...which was an immediate giveaway].

Melee ensued with Luven hitting the cloaked figure with one of his special magical throwing knives (Knives of Melvin Spellpudding). Dante took down one of the armored guys in the front row and then melee ensued. Before the battle had progressed very far, there was a flash and a puff of smoke and the hooded woman vanished, leaving a pile of cloak behind.

The party took a bit of damage during the battle, but with the woman vanishing and armored guy sleeping, the odds were in their favor. The party were able to defeat the two remaining foes rather handily.

A quick search of the bodies turned up nothing but standard weapons. A careful search of the abandoned cloak and clothing was more fruitful...a ring and two scrolls. The ring turned out to be similar to the previous two that were found on the slain cloaked guys. It had an evil aura and it gives the ability create a burning hands effect inside the body of a victim touched by the ring wearer.

One of the scrolls turned out to be a delivery confirmation, a receipt for delivered alchemy powders. The second scroll was a set of patrol orders, given to the cloaked woman (who is called Alleena in the scroll). The scroll provided a lot of useful background information for the player characters. It also indicated that the alchemy powders had been delivered to a newly colonized area of the dungeon. The path to this colony was just south of "the Room with Five Doors." The patrol orders also mentioned a spider that was being used to guard the stairs leading up from "the Room with Five Doors."

The brave adventurers looked around them and decided they were in the Room with Five Doors. The first order of business was to kill the spider above them in the stairwell. With flaming oil, an ray of enfeeblement, and some good old stabbing and jabbing, they managed to kill the really nasty spider without harm to themselves. They searched the web and found the encased body of the naked slaves, who they now knew were called "meat" (as mentioned in the patrol orders).

The party was undecided as to which way to go so part of the party went west into Area 4 (Map A above) while another part of the group went south into Room 3. Area 4 didn't look promising so they continued to go south. Rooms 3, 5, 6, 7, and 8 all contained rows of mushrooms in a thin layer of soil. They were big mushrooms, some over 4' tall.

They came to a steel door and prepared their weapons. The patrol orders indicated that there was a room (with potential treasure) that was part of "the path." It would contain two gaunts (7' tall guys with halberds) and one novice named Prog (the guys with the cloaks, hoods, and evil rings).

The party burst into Room 9. In it was one novice, two gaunts, and two cave goats. Duncan hit them with a color spray, knocking the gaunts unconscious and blinding Prog. Prog and his companions were quickly overcome and the party set to opening the chests they found in the room. There was plenty of gold and silver, as well a number of healing potions and healing draughts. There was also some black cloth and bags of stringy dried meat. Intriguingly, there was also a glowing green circle on the floor with a brighter glowing spot in the center.

The party threw the three bodies of their most recent victims into the circle and each disappeared. Luven rigged one of the chests with vial of gas (removed from the chest when he found and removed a trap). He threw the chest into the circle and it disappeared. Luven then decided to relieve himself into the circle [what is a GM supposed to do in a case like this?]. Luven disappeared from the room, apparently following the three bodies and the chest of recently released poison gas.

Dante fastened a rope around himself, gave one end to Adzeer, and jumped into the green circle. He found himself being sucked into another space or room but being held back by the rope, which ended up causing him considerable injury. At this point, the party all entered the green circle and disappeared (Diana brought along the two additional cave goats)...

Map B (1 square = 5 feet)

...and reappeared in Room 10 (Map B above). The rest of the party found that Luven had suffered a bit of damage from the released gas, but was otherwise okay.

The party moved into Room 11 (Map B above). There were four meats in the room, chained together and tending a few rows of smaller mushrooms.To the south, they could see a statue in the corridor. To the east, they see two gaunts, standing still in Room 13. The party kept an eye on the gaunts while Duncan explored Room 12, which was filled with more mushrooms.

The party then used flaming oil to burn the gaunts. The flames killed one gaunt and seriously burned the other, but still it did not move. The party was able to kill the remaining gaunt. Despite being armed with a halberd, it did not fight back.

The group moved into Room 14, which was furnished with a simple table, bed, and three chairs. They appeared to be new and made of pressed mushroom material. There was a black cloak under the bed but nothing else in the room.

The group then moved into Room 15 (Map B above). This small room featured a device on a pedestal. The device had a dial on the side, with the numbers I-V (Roman numerals) arranged around the dial. Dante moved the dial to "I" and the party was able to get a birdseye view of the entrance room of the dungeon. "II" provided a view of a room with a pool. The party had visited this room in Session 8, where Duncan famously dove into the pool and triggered an attack by water elementals.

Moving the dial to the three remaining positions revealed three other rooms, none of which had been visited by the party. View III featured a room with a "pool" of stones. View IV displayed a room with a "pool" of low flames. Room V revealed an empty "pool." These are all displayed in the diagram below.