Duncan: "King Me!" (Tonight's Gaming Session)

Session 46 of the Montporte Dungeon Campaign ended with Duncan (Dan's character) becoming King of the Gnomes (by popular acclaim). The quest to return a group of rescued gnomes to their subterranean was completed with the surprise royal ending.

We are going to take a break from Montporte to do some other things with our Monday night gaming sessions. Next up is Rob Conley running some D&D 5e sessions. We'll come back to Montporte at some point in the not too distant future.

Montporte Dungeon Campaign Session 45 Notes

Peter D (Dungeon Fantastic) had a nice summary of this session in his blog post, 5e D&D - Montporte Megadungeon - 1/19 Summary of Play.

Cast of Characters
Adzeer Mattiu, Hunter of the Second Circle (Half Orc, Hunter): Tim (Gothridge Manor)
Breena Honey-Badger Warrick (Gnome, Barbarian): Joshua (Tales of the Rambling Bumblers)
Dante Rathburn (Human, Warlock): Chris (The Clash of Spear on Shield)
Luven Lightfinger (Human, Rogue): Rob (Bat in the Attic)
Nosphryc Azurecoat (Human, Fighter): Douglas (Gaming Ballistic) [Played this session by Peter D (Dungeon Fantastic)]
Duncan Kern (Gnome, Rogue): Dan
Marcus Aurelius (Magic sword): NPC
Benn (Human): NPC
Lucky (One eyed, three legged blink dog): NPC
13 Rescued Gnomes (Abel; Dilrod; Dwemmon; Ernst; Evinrude; Fern; Fernando; Gemflower; Happenstance; Homer; Priscilla; Rosepetal; Zelma Lynn): NPCs
Abakarkabasharaba (5 Githzerai): NPCs

Map A (1 square = 5 feet)

The Session
The last session ended with the brave adventurers taking a long rest in Room 1 (Map A above). They heard a scream in the distance in the middle of the rest but it was otherwise uneventful. The player characters were at least 28 miles below the world's surface, although the distance was only an estimate as their exact location was a mystery (thanks to a teleport in Session 37).

After the long rest, the party moved north to Area 2 (Map A above). Here they found two eviscerated hobgoblins, with a trail of blood and guts leading east up the steps (Area 3 on Map A). The party had a brief conversation as to whether they should follow the trail of blood east (Area 3), explore Area 5, or head west down the stairs (Area 4).

They opted to head west and down, using the stairs in Area 4. They wanted to to complete their quest and deliver the rescued gnomes back to their homeland (which they believed was west).

The party descended west down the stairs. This proved to be another long descent. After descending 7 vertical miles (and heading west 7 horizontal miles). The party met five humanoids, who spoke strangely, but were not unfriendly. They turned out to be 5 githzerai (3 monks and 2 zerth), who went by the name of Abakarkabasharaba. They asked about Allindrihl, the elf mushroom farmer living on Level 2 of the Montporte Dungeon, and the player characters let them know where he lived. In turn, the githzerai let the adventurers know that they were on the right path to the gnomes' homeland. At the bottom of the stairs, the adventurers were told they would find Benn and he would be of help to them. The player characters and the githzerai each said their farewells and moved on.

The party descended another 7 vertical miles and found that when they reached the bottom of the steps, they were also entering a large cave. The party noticed that they had entered a mushroom forest of some kind. They followed a path that led them to Benn (a 7' tall human), Benn's blink dogs, and two small sturdy cottages with a larger house in the distance. Benn was friendly rustic type who complained about trolls and hobgoblins. Some of the gnomes knew him, which convinced the wary adventurers that he could be trusted.

Map B--Benn's House

He invited them to stay in his two cottages and brought a pork & mushroom dinner to them, prepared by his wife (who, according to Benn, was in the big house).

The two cottages each had a very sturdy door, lots of garlic, and an ample supply of wooden stakes. He warned them not to invite anyone into the cottages and then bid them a good night.

The party had another uneventful long rest and were furnished with a tasty breakfast. Benn told them that they would need to pass through a mushroom forest, inhabited by stone giants, to get to the gnomes' home to the west. They should stay on the path, only fight if attacked, stay away from the sticky black cave moss, and the green slime. The stone giants would let them pass so long as the party followed these rules. As a dubious bonus, the party (Duncan, actually) acquired a one-eyed three-legged blink dog, named Lucky, from Benn.

Map C--The Mushroom Forest (1 hex = 1 mile)

The party then set out into the dark, subterranean forest. They traveled quite a distance from Benn's house (Area 6 on Map C above) to Area 7, where they encountered several giant glowing (red) boars. Some of the boars moved towards the party in a slow aggressive manor. The rest of the boars stayed back, nervously watching the encounter unfold.

Map D--The Boar War (1 hex = 5 feet)

Eventually, a few of the boars moved close enough to the party to charge. Luven darted south and led a group of boars on a long chase south and west. The rest of the party closed ranks as a few more boars that moved towards them.

The boars chasing Luven were, for the most part, unable to get close enough to attack. One boar managed a fire breath attack that did considerable damage to Luven. This also betrayed something of the boars' true nature (they were giant fire boars). Luven had 5 giant fire boars chasing him while another 2 boars eventually attacked the main body of the party. A remaining giant fire boar fled slowly to the north.

Luven led the boars chasing him into a patch of black dungeon moss, where 3 of them became mired. The remaining 2 fled north. In the meantime, the rest of the party dispatched the 2 other giant fire boars, although the player characters were wounded in the process. The 2 dead giant fire boars immediately cooked themselves and each had an apple appear in its mouth.

The party hustled quickly to the west as the 3 giant fire boars trapped in the moss slowly extricated themselves. The 3 other giant fire boars continued to move north out of sight.

The party moved to Area 8, where they found their westward path intersecting a path from the north. Here the party opted to take a long rest and we ended the session.

The Dungeon So Far

Level 1 (1 square = 5 feet)

Level 2 (1 square = 5 feet)

Level 3 (1 square = 5 feet)

Mystery Level A (1 square = 5 feet)

Mystery Level B (1 square = 5 feet)

21 Miles Down A (1 square = 5 feet)

21 Miles Down B (1 square = 5 feet)

28 Miles Down (1 square = 5 feet)

42 Miles Down (1 hex = 1 mile)

First Glimpse of the Montporte Deep Dark

The brave adventurers descended 42 vertical miles or so from the Montporte Dungeon deeper into the earth. They found themselves in a forest of pink and orange mushrooms, with black sticky dungeon moss and lots of green slime. It turned into an old fashioned hex crawl, except that it was dark. Here is the players' hex map. It looks a bit like a caterpillar black light poster. Each hex is one mile.

Giant Fire Boar--Montporte Dungeon Campaign Critter

GIANT FIRE BOAR
Armor Class: 6 [13]
Hit Dice: 6
Attacks: Tusks (2d6+2)
Saving Throw: 11
Special: Charge; Flaming Breath; Instantly Cooked
Move: 18
Challenge Level/XP: 7/600

The giant fire boar is a large magical creature that inhabits large remote caverns of the Deep Dark, feeding on mushrooms. They are black in color, except for a pulsating dim red glow that surrounds their neck and shoulders. From a distance, it looks much like the embers of a dying fire.

COMBAT: Giant fire boars are very territorial and can be quite aggressive. They usually will stump, snuffle, and snort as a warning to unwelcome intruders before defending their territory. As they are not predators or carnivores, they will flee when hurt or when faced by dangerous natural predator.

CHARGE: If the giant fire boar has at least a 20' straight avenue in which to run at its opponent, it will charge. By charging, the giant fire boar gains a +1 to attack and does an additional 2d6 to its tusk attack.

FLAMING BREATH: The giant fire boar can use a flaming breath attack once per day. It is a cone 10' long and 5' wide of intense flame. It does 4d6 of flame damage (1/2 damage if targets make their saving throw).

INSTANTLY COOKED: When the giant fire boar is killed, it instantly cooks itself, and an apple appears in its mouth.

Systems Matter: Exploration, Encounters and Intent in the Megadungeon

Dungeon Explorer

I am a firm believer that the "3 E's"--Exploration, Encounters, and Extraction--do a pretty good job of capturing the essence of megadungeon play. There are plenty of rule sets that will support 3 E megadungeon play: The various editions of D&D (and its clones), GURPS, Tunnels & Trolls, and Savage Worlds are just a few of the many rule sets that will do more than an adequate job supporting dungeon play.

This being said, rule sets are not interchangeable (this, as my college physics textbook says, "is intuitively obvious to the casual observer"). Some rule sets better support tactical choices in combat while other rule sets support quick play and exploration.

Of the three, extraction seems like the least affected by the rule set used. This leaves exploration and encounters. Of these two, encounters are directly impacted by the rule set used while exploration is indirectly impacted.

Gibson Explorer

Let's assume that a dungeon-based gaming session is going to last 4 hours. Those 4 hours are going to be made up of two primary activities: Exploration and encounters. Exploration is typically a systemless activity. Player characters move through a dungeon and, regardless of system, can cover about the same amount of distance on a map per hour of session time. I am sure that there are some exceptions to this, but, in general, the speed of exploration is more a function of GM and players than it is a function of rule set and system.

This is not the case with encounters. Assuming that most encounters result in combat, then the speed in which a rule set decides an encounter determines how much time is spent on the encounter. Simple, abstract rule sets, like Swords & Wizardry, have short real time encounters. More complex tactical rule sets, like GURPS and Pathfinder, have much longer encounter resolution times. On the positive side, these rule sets offer players and GMs plenty of tactical options (I am true fan of GURPS in this regard). The down side of this tactical richness is the time it takes to resolve the encounter.

What this means for the 4 hour gaming session is that, with a more complex rule set, more time is spent on encounters. By default, less time is spent on exploration. Reducing the number of encounters is the only clear way to mitigate the impact of a tactically complex rule set.

This is where intent comes in. If the GM and players have a common intent within the dungeon campaign, then it becomes much easier to be select a rule set and, more importantly, be content with the strengths and limitations of that rule set after many sessions of play. If the intent is to maximize tactical choices for players in a dungeon setting, then GURPS is the way to go in my book. If the intent is to maximize the amount of geography covered so that it is feasible to explore a really really big dungeon, then a simpler rule set like Swords & Wizardry Core would be my choice. In each case, GM and players have to be content with what they have and also what they give up. After all, it is entirely possible to revisit the same dungeon with a different intent and rule set.

I have been thinking about rule sets and intentionality from time to time, just because I think about things like this. More recently, I have been thinking about this since we have switched to D&D 5e. It is a slick, well-designed system...I like it a lot. However, it is slower than Blood & Treasure, our previous rule set, when it comes to encounter resolution. In turn, this has taken time away from exploration. And, D&D 5e doesn't have a lot of tactical crunch in combat, thus leaving our tactical crunch guys yearning for more. There is a lot of out-of-combat decisions that the players must make--which was one of the goals of D&D 5e (perhaps the subject of a future post).

As for me, my intent in creating the Montporte Dungeon was to focus on exploration, by creating a huge dungeon that would be too big to completely explore. And this dungeon would also have lots of connections to the Deep Dark...more connections to what lies below than to the surface world.

Attunement: Montporte Dungeon Campaign House Rule

Some Other House Rules

Here is the house rule we will use for magic item attunement in the current Montporte Dungeon campaign.

Overview
When magic items are created, the creator of the item melds the elements contained in the item to the energies coursing through the universe. This involves magical skill and the force of will by the creator. Generally, magic items are attuned to the creator, unless the creator specifically creates a magic item otherwise. When someone other than the creator seeks to use the magic item, the prospective user must first be attuned to item through a short simple ritual that also involves the force of personality (Charisma).

Provisions of House Rule
All magic items require attunement. The two general exceptions are alchemy items (potions, powders, oils, etc) and scrolls. Many gnome devices, clockwork or otherwise, do not require attunement (e.g. finder's lens). Some other items may be created with instant attunement, but these items are rare.

There is no limit to the number of items to which a character can be attuned.

Some items, particularly intelligent items, may have the power to unattune other items in the character's possession. Once such an item is unattuned by another item, the character can no longer attune to it.

Some items may only be attuned by a particular class or race. Or there may be limitations placed on its use when a particular class is using it.

Attunement to one item can be done during one short or one long rest. A few items may be created with the feature that it instantly attunes on contact or some other specific predetermined condition, as noted above.

Most items require a die roll for attunement. The Difficulty Class for low power common items is 10 (easy). Characters add their Charisma modifier, plus their proficiency bonus, to the die roll. If the die roll succeeds, the character is attuned to the item. If the die roll fails, then the attunement fails...and, more importantly, the character can never attune to that item (short of a wish spell or divine intervention).

Characters may opt to attempt an "instant attunement" as a free action. The die roll is done at disadvantage. If the item is otherwise unattuned, then the DC is 12, with a critical failure on a roll of 1. If the item is attuned to another living (or undead) creature, then the DC is 15, with a critical failure on a roll of 1 or 2.

Limitations on Magic Item Use
We will follow the AD&D 1e rules regarding limitations on number of items used at any one time: 2 rings, 1 set of armor, 1 magic cloak, 1 pair of boots, 1 pair of gloves, etc. This is not part of the attunement rule per se, but it is related to it as it applies to magic item use (thanks to Peter D for the reminder on this set of AD&D 1e guidelines).

Implementation of House Rule
We will assume that the player characters have successfully attuned to all of the items that they currently possess.

We won't worry about the current bags of holding and portable holes for now. I don't want to waste precious game session time on figuring this out. We will just hand wave it for now.

I can think of two items, the Chalice of Doluth and the Lens of Melnar, that we need to identify an owner for attunement. Attunement will be automatic, once the owner is selected for each item.

Montporte Dungeon Campaign Session 44 Notes

Douglas Cole (Gaming Ballistic) has an excellent summary of this session in Montporte 44 - Attunement and Grimlocks.

The Cast of Characters
Adzeer Mattiu, Hunter of the Second Circle (Half Orc, Hunter): Tim (Gothridge Manor)
Breena Honey-Badger Warrick (Gnome, Barbarian): Joshua (Tales of the Rambling Bumblers)
Dante Rathburn (Human, Warlock): Chris (The Clash of Spear on Shield)
Luven Lightfinger (Human, Rogue): Rob (Bat in the Attic)
Nosphryc Azurecoat (Human, Fighter): Douglas (Gaming Ballistic)
13 Rescued Gnomes (Abel; Dilrod; Dwemmon; Ernst; Evinrude; Fern; Fernando; Gemflower; Happenstance; Homer; Priscilla; Rosepetal; Zelma Lynn)

Map A (1 square = 5 feet)

The Session
At the end of the last session, the brave adventurers were counting the contents of the piles of gold and silver bars they had obtained after defeating two of four hobgoblins and two trolls. Two of the hobgoblins had managed to teleport away, but the party still came away with a lot of gold and silver [solidifying the reputation of hobgoblins as the ATM machines of the Montporte Dungeon].

The party decided to further explore this level, which was at least 28 miles below the earth's surface. They were not sure of this as there was a teleport involved in Session 37. Since teleporting, the party is not actually sure of where they are or how to return to the known area of the Montporte Dungeon and the earth's surface.

Starting in Area 1 (Map A above) the party moved south and into Room 2. Here they found a shallow pool of very clear water. Using the Lens of Melnar, they determined that the water was not magical, but the stone forming the pool basin was enchanted. The stone had the ability to purify water, so the party used the opportunity to fill up on drinking water.

The party continued to move south into Room 3 (Map A above). This room had 6 rusty eye bolts built into the walls, about 3 feet above the floor. There were three bolts on the west wall and three bolts on the east wall. While investigating the bolts and looking for secret doors, the party noticed that the floor was quite worn underneath each eye bolt. They finally determined that this room was used as a stable for mounts and pack animals of some kind.

The party then moved back north to Area 1 (Map A above) then west to Room 4. This room was thick with dust and cobwebs, but there was a clearly identifiable foot path through it from Area 1 to Room 5, with the appearance of a lesser amount of traffic towards Area 13.

The party moved through Room 5 to Room 6 then south into Room 7. They could still see evidence of considerable foot traffic heading into all the corridors and rooms they encountered. The party moved into Room 8, where they were attacked by eleven grimlocks. The grimlocks had a well-conceived, but poorly executed, ambush waiting for the party. Grimlocks have lots of stealth but little smarts.

As melee ensued in Room 8, with the grimlocks being overmatched (despite their numerical superiority), a second wave of ten grimlocks swarmed towards the rear of the party from Area 9 through Room 7 (Map A above). The party was surrounded but this worked to their advantage, as it allowed all the party members to unleash their attacks on a larger number of foe. Had the grimlocks individually been tougher, the brave adventurers would have been in real trouble. Instead, the two front battle just sped up the process of dispatching grimlocks.

At the end of the battle, the remaining four grimlocks tried to flee, triggering some attacks of opportunity. Two more grimlocks went down, but two fled the scene. Luven was able to track down the final two in Area 10 (Map A above), with Nosphryc coming along behind him.

Besides a lot of small sacks of nasty meat, the grimlocks had a pink diamond (worth 5,000 gold pieces) and a mind flayer stuff doll of unknown use. The party couldn't figure out if it was a toy, a religious item, or something else.

The party continued into Room 11 (Map A above), which turned out to be a long irregular room with a vaulted ceiling. They guessed that this was the actual lair of the grimlocks, based on the amount of fecal matter along the east wall.

The party moved through Room 12, back into Room 8. Here they decided they would spend a long rest, with a pile of grimlock bodies serving as a partial barrier in the narrow corridor heading east out of the room. The long rest was uneventful, except for the distant scream heard during the second watch. The party had determined that, once the long rest was completed, they would explore Area 13, which appeared to be the only unexplored area on this level.

This is where the session ended.

The Dungeon So Far

Level 1 (1 square = 5 feet)

Level 2 (1 square = 5 feet)

Level 3 (1 square = 5 feet)

Mystery Level A (1 square = 5 feet)

Mystery Level B (1 square = 5 feet)

21 Miles Below A (1 square = 5 feet)

21 Miles Below B (1 square = 5 feet)

28 Miles Below (1 square = 5 feet)

D&D 5e Attunement: But Wait, There's More!

So Peter D (Dungeon Fantastic) had a thoughtful post on attunement. I read it and then reconsidered my thinking on attunement in my own Montporte Dungeon campaign, which we switched to D&D 5e five sessions ago. I read Peter D's post and thought, "Hmmm. Maybe I shouldn't ditch this rule" (see my earlier post about attunement).

So here is what I am thinking...and mind you, this could change by time we play on Monday night (or it could change by time I am writing the post)

Provisions of House Rule
All magic items require attunement. The two general exceptions are alchemy items (potions, powders, oils, bubble bath, body lotion, etc) and scrolls. Many gnome devices, clockwork or otherwise, do not require attunement. The finder's lens (purchased by the player characters in Session 9, it is actually an alchemy item) does not require attunement, nor does the transportation vehicle control amulet (found in Session 41, attunement is instant and automatic). However, the Chalice of Doluth (creates healing potions) does require attunement.

There is no limit to the number of items to which a character can be attuned.

Some items, particularly intelligent items, may have the power to unattune (detune?) other items in the character's possession (cue evil DM laugh). This would suck, but it makes it interesting for the DM. This is what matters to me.

Some items may only be attuned by a particular class or race. Or there may be limitations placed on its use when a particular class is using it.

Attunement to one item can be done during one short or one long rest. A few items may be created with the feature that it instantly attunes on contact or another condition.

Most items require a dice roll for attunement. The Difficulty Class for low power common items is 10 (easy). Characters add their Charisma modifier, plus their proficiency bonus, to the die roll. If the die roll succeeds, the character is attuned to the item. If the die roll fails, then the attunement fails...and, more importantly, the character can never attune to that item (short of a wish spell, divine intervention or DM whim).

Limitations on Magic Item Use
We will follow the AD&D 1e rules regarding limitations on number of items used at any one time: 2 rings, 1 set of armor, 1 magic cloak, 1 pair of boots, 1 pair of gloves, etc. This is not part of the attunement rule per se, but it is related to it as it applies to magic item use (thanks to Peter D for the reminder on this set of AD&D 1e guidelines).

Implementation of House Rule
We will assume that the player characters have successfully attuned to all of the items that they currently possess.

We won't worry about the current bags of holding and portable holes for now. I don't want to waste precious game session time on figuring this out. We will just hand wave it for now.

I can think of two items, the Chalice of Doluth and the Lens of Melnar, that we need to identify an owner for attunement.

Messing With Dungeon Maps

I did the map below in AutoREALM. Not really happy with the way it came out...coloring, perspective, etc all somewhat off.

My goal is to create a single map of the discovered portion of the Montporte Dungeon, with just enough detail so that the players can maintain their bearings as we move from map to map. The map below only contains the three levels that the players have down in terms of location. They have explored a lot more, but thanks to a teleport, they do not know where they are in relationship to the area displayed on the map below. They are in a whole other area of the dungeon.

It feels a little too small and plain. But it is a start...and maybe some of the Montporte players will find it helpful.

D&D 5e Attunement After Further Review: Nevermind

After spending some time reading more about attunement in D&D 5e, I decided that I like it in the abstract but not in practice, at least not for our current campaign in Montporte. I already feel like we are challenged to make progress during our sessions, which generally last about 3 to 3 1/2 hours (with about 2 1/2 hours of gaming). I don't want to slow us up any more.

I also would want to completely rewrite the attunement rules so that they would be to my liking and, after taking a few stabs at it, I realized that it would take more work and thought than I currently want to invest.

So the house rule for Montporte on attunement is that we will skip it, at least for now.

Transit Dungeon Maps?

My wedding anniversary was this past Monday and one of the very cool gifts my wife to me (besides the green light to participate in game night on Monday*) was a book about mass transit maps, cleverly entitled Mass Transit Maps of the World.

New York City Subway Map

I have loved maps of all sorts since I was a child--I regularly created room-sized maps by taping together sheets of paper when staying with my grandparents (I was 6 or 7 years old...I didn't do it at home because of our dogs). I started working on a cartography specialization when I was an undergrad, but it required me to do a double major and I didn't complete all of the course work for the second major by time I graduated.

Istanbul Rail Transit Map

I am thinking that creating a transit map might be a groovy way to present the Montporte Dungeon, at least as it has been explored so far, to the players. As we are closing in on 50 sessions of play, it is hard to keep track of how the dungeon all fits together. I know the players seem to really struggle with this as they only see a small piece of the dungeon at any one time in Roll20.

Final Fantasy VII Transit Map

I am not sure how much work it would be to create a dungeon map as a transit map. I think the map creation would be the easier task. Figuring out the best way to graphically represent the dungeon and its connections might be brain-numbing.

Cardiac Transportation Routes

There is also the reality that a map that only represents to the players what has been explored so far becomes obsolete as soon as they begin mapping out new areas. The level of abstraction in a transit map might extend the useful life of the map, but at a certain point, the map would have to be modified or even completely recreated.

Sofia Public Transit Map

I am not sure how to represent the 3-D aspect of the dungeon. The Sofia Public Transit Map (above) gives enough of a 3-D perspective that it could be the basis for a good dungeon map. That would really challenge my rusty cartography skills.

Milky Way Transit Map

I might try to sketch out a rudimentary map and then see if I can create it on the computer (without investing too much time or any $$$ in software).

Springfield Transit Map

D&D 5e: The First Battle of Attunement

So we I have DMed four sessions of D&D 5e, using a my Montporte Dungeon...previously we had been using AD&D 1e and then Blood & Treasure. Additionally, +Rob Conley DMed The Mines of Phandelver for our gaming group. So we have some time with D&D 5e under our belt.

One of the rules we hadn't used--and it is a significant one--is Attunement. Attunement is buried in the Dungeon Master's Guide at the beginning of the magic item section on pages 136 and 138. Basically, most of the more powerful magic items and many of the lesser ones can only be used by characters who have "attuned" themselves to the item during a short rest. Characters can be attuned to a maximum of three magic items at a time.

So I decided to roll out the rule, with mixed reviews from the players. Some liked the idea. Others not so much. Honestly, I am ambivalent about it myself, but I wanted to see how it would play out in actual game play. So we tried it. I am still not sure, although I have done more reading and more research on it.

Here are two very thoughtful blog posts from a couple of the guys in our Monday gaming group:

• Taking 5e Attunement to the Wood Shed by +Tim Shorts (Gothridge Manor) 
• Attunement in D&D 5e by +Douglas Cole (Gaming Ballistic)

Monday Moodsetter 63

RPG Rorschach: What's the first gaming thought that pops into your head?

Montporte Dungeon Campaign Session 43 Notes

Douglas Cole (Gaming Ballistic) has a nice summary with more combat detail in his post, Montporte Session 43. Chris C. (The Clash of Spear on Shield) has captured the best/worst of our group play in his post, Adventure Sound Bites.

The Cast of Characters
Adzeer Mattiu, Hunter of the Second Circle (Half Orc, Hunter): Tim (Gothridge Manor)
Breena Honey-Badger Warrick (Gnome, Barbarian): Joshua (Tales of the Rambling Bumblers)
Dante Rathburn (Human, Warlock): Chris (The Clash of Spear on Shield)
Luven Lightfinger (Human, Rogue): Rob (Bat in the Attic)
Nosphryc Azurecoat (Human, Fighter): Douglas (Gaming Ballistic)
13 Rescued Gnomes (Abel; Dilrod; Dwemmon; Ernst; Evinrude; Fern; Fernando; Gemflower; Happenstance; Homer; Priscilla; Rosepetal; Zelma Lynn)

Map A (1 square = 5 feet)

The Session
The previous session had ended with the party having defeated a vampire spawn and her accompany guard of wights and zombies in Room 1 (Map A above). The brave adventurers were still on their way downward into the earth, seeking to deliver some deep living gnomes back to their homes. The gnomes had been rescued from captivity in Session 29 and Session 36.

The party continued south, with Luven moving quietly in the lead through a series of secret doors. They passed through an empty Room 2 (Map A) into Room 3. They found a small plain shrine in Room 3, with a simple black stone altar against the west wall and a heavy stone table against the east wall. The party did a lot of checking and determined, through careful examination, that the area had was a fake shrine. It was simply staged to look like an area of devotion. They broke the altar.

The party discovered a secret door behind the table on the east wall. The party moved into Room 4 (Map A above) and found a unadorned stone sarcophagus. Luven rushed to push the lid off, in a quick move for treasure. There was nothing in the sarcophagus except for a bucket's worth of topsoil which gave off a faint whiff of undead. The party did various things to the soil to de-undead it--which involved holy water and urine.

They examined the sarcophagus more carefully, looking for false compartments and secret doors. They did see that the lid of the sarcophagus had the name "Sebastian Baynard Finster" engraved on the lid. The party decided that Sebastian Baynard Finster is the SBF mentioned in two letters they found during the last session, both written by a Brother Kepler (here and here).

Finding nothing further, the party left the crypt area and moved west to Area 6 on  Map A [the DM realizing after the fact that Map A has no Area 5...oops]. The party was into to continue downward by using the descending stairs at Area 7. However, Luven (with his magically enhanced hearing) heard the sound of voices coming from the north of Area 6 (from Area 8). He moved stealthily north to Area 8, noted that they were coming from the east. He moved east and, looking north, saw a few hobgoblins and boreal trolls in Room 9 (Map A).

He quietly moved back to the party, waiting for him in Area 6. His hand motions conveyed to the party that there was something up that way, but each party member drew their own conclusion. The party moved back north and this time did not escape the notice of the hobgoblins.

Now in Montporte, hobgoblins are trash talking fey of the Winter Court who have some limited teleporting ability as well as being tougher in combat. Despite being mean-spirited slavers, hobgoblins prefer to leave the fighting to their hired muscle.

Melee ensued with two of the hobgoblins teleporting next to Luven. The party moved in to help, but not before Luven got knocked about. The party and the hobgoblins fought a confused swirling battle around the corridor intersection at Area 8. Two more hobgoblins teleported into the hallway between Area 8 and Room 10, adding to the confusion. In the meantime, the trolls in Room 9 made their way down the corridor and began to press the attack from the east.

The party was able to dispatch the first two hobgoblins and, when turning to the north to take on the second two, the second wave of hobgoblins teleported away to parts unknown.

This left the trolls, who knocked Luven around some more. Fortunately for the party, the 10' wide corridor limited the trolls. The second troll couldn't get to the party to attack. The party could focus their combined melee and magic attack on one troll at a time, which reduced the impact of the troll's regeneration.

The first troll was knocked down, but began regenerating. Lots of oil was applied to the prone troll while most of the party engaged the second troll that had moved up, standing and fighting over the top of his fallen comrade.

Lots of damage was dealt to the second troll and, in a final two for one deal, magical flame ignited the oil. This killed the prone troll outright and did just enough damage to the second troll to count as the final death blow.

The party discovered that there were 5 large sacks in the Room 9, where the hobgoblins and boreal trolls recently been hanging out. The sacks contained 5 unconscious, but very alive, gnomes. The party now had 13 rescued gnomes.

The party took a short rest and this is where the session ended.

The Dungeon So Far

Level 1 (1 square = 5 feet)

Level 2 (1 square = 5 feet)

Level 3 (1 square = 5 feet)

Mystery Level A (1 square = 5 feet)

Mystery Level B (1 square = 5 feet)

21 Miles Below A (1 square = 5 feet)

21 Miles Below B (1 square = 5 feet)

28 Miles Below (1 square = 5 feet)