Summary
Level 5 of the dungeon is explored further, then during downtime the party is visited by the strange warriors they met earlier, clearing up some more details of their background.
Party Members
- Verasha - Level 4 Druid
- Pipam the Younger - Level 4 Thief
- von Plarf - Level 3 Elf
- Zoltan - Level 4 Dwarf
- "Rusty" the Talasum - Level 3 Fighter
Followers
Jaro (Verasha's war boar); Grub (Verasha's other war boar); Alois (Porter and Cook); Walter of Potsdam (Man-at-Arms); Tatana (Woman-at-Arms); Baba Tonka (a brown bear) and 3 War Hounds
Session Recap
Continuing where the last session left off, the party regrouped after their encounters with the strange emaciated talasumi and decided to explore some more of the dungeon level. They found a room with floating candles close to where they were, but decided to instead focus on exploring more of the level and go back to the candles later.
Further exploration brought them to the odd encampment of small and fuzzy creatures (kobolds) living in a series of hanging platforms above the dungeon floor and away from the dangerous denizens of the place. Some friendly chatter, gifts of seed cakes, and general banter ensued, interrupted by a jiggling mass slowly approaching the group.
Realizing that the Gelatinous Cube was actually too slow to really catch up with them, the group proceeded to retreat and kite the thing with arrows and Sunfire, destroying it in the process and claiming a curious golden ring from the jelly-like slop left after the thing melted away.
Further exploration led them to a room of mirrors and an odd staff hovering in the center of it. Cautious of any obvious traps, the group approached the staff, only to find that the reason for it hovering mid-air was that it was, again, in the middle of another Gelatinous Cube. This time the thing had somehow managed to get the drop on them (by remaining perfectly still in the middle of a room, no less! Devious thing that it was) and so the group instead relied on their usual Bear-focused strategy, with Baba Tonka ripping apart the thing in a round.
With the obviously magical staff retrieved the group found a room with iron statues in it, two of which rather predictably turned out to be alive. However with some quick thinking (and slow movement of the statues) the party simply...closed the door in front of them. The statues then happily returned back to their pedestals, clearly uninterested in pursuit.
Finally, with some poking and prodding of candles the group realized that they would naturally levitate when light up, otherwise acting as normal candles that do not appear to burn out. Gathering them all, the characters were satisfied and headed back up to the surface.
The haul from this run was quite good, and so the group felt happy to spend some of that cash on identifying the magical ring as well as figuring out what the staff's deal is. The priests of the Greytown Church explained that the staff was able to heal people with a touch, while Frantishek the Magician, the local high level magic-user of the town, found out that the ring was actually a cursed Ring of Weakness and offered to buy it off the party, along with the floating candles. He explained that the ring was actually exactly the kind of stuff his contacts back in the Imperial core got asked for by their clients, while the candles he just personally found neat and wanted to use them around his tower.
Further exploration brought them to the odd encampment of small and fuzzy creatures (kobolds) living in a series of hanging platforms above the dungeon floor and away from the dangerous denizens of the place. Some friendly chatter, gifts of seed cakes, and general banter ensued, interrupted by a jiggling mass slowly approaching the group.
Realizing that the Gelatinous Cube was actually too slow to really catch up with them, the group proceeded to retreat and kite the thing with arrows and Sunfire, destroying it in the process and claiming a curious golden ring from the jelly-like slop left after the thing melted away.
Further exploration led them to a room of mirrors and an odd staff hovering in the center of it. Cautious of any obvious traps, the group approached the staff, only to find that the reason for it hovering mid-air was that it was, again, in the middle of another Gelatinous Cube. This time the thing had somehow managed to get the drop on them (by remaining perfectly still in the middle of a room, no less! Devious thing that it was) and so the group instead relied on their usual Bear-focused strategy, with Baba Tonka ripping apart the thing in a round.
With the obviously magical staff retrieved the group found a room with iron statues in it, two of which rather predictably turned out to be alive. However with some quick thinking (and slow movement of the statues) the party simply...closed the door in front of them. The statues then happily returned back to their pedestals, clearly uninterested in pursuit.
Finally, with some poking and prodding of candles the group realized that they would naturally levitate when light up, otherwise acting as normal candles that do not appear to burn out. Gathering them all, the characters were satisfied and headed back up to the surface.
The haul from this run was quite good, and so the group felt happy to spend some of that cash on identifying the magical ring as well as figuring out what the staff's deal is. The priests of the Greytown Church explained that the staff was able to heal people with a touch, while Frantishek the Magician, the local high level magic-user of the town, found out that the ring was actually a cursed Ring of Weakness and offered to buy it off the party, along with the floating candles. He explained that the ring was actually exactly the kind of stuff his contacts back in the Imperial core got asked for by their clients, while the candles he just personally found neat and wanted to use them around his tower.
Most importantly, the group now had the extra funds on hand to go talk to the builder's guild and arrange for the construction to begin in earnest on restoring the fortified manor. To make sure they don't get any surprises, they also hired a pair of men-at-arms to hang out there and keep a watch out.
While back at their manor and preparing things for the builders to begin work, the characters were approached by Anna, the fighter that lead the group of plate-clad warriors the party had encountered earlier. She told them that she and her men were working as muscle for an underground temple dedicated to the four elements, and that the head priest was interesting in talking to the party and wanted to ask them for help (with what, she didn't know, as she was just there to relay the message).
Also now that Anna was no longer flustered and slightly confused by running into the party in the middle of what was supposed to be a mostly abandoned level of a dungeon, she also gave the general lay of the land as she knew it, and said she'll come back soon to help escort them down to the temple's level and talk to the priests.
While back at their manor and preparing things for the builders to begin work, the characters were approached by Anna, the fighter that lead the group of plate-clad warriors the party had encountered earlier. She told them that she and her men were working as muscle for an underground temple dedicated to the four elements, and that the head priest was interesting in talking to the party and wanted to ask them for help (with what, she didn't know, as she was just there to relay the message).
Also now that Anna was no longer flustered and slightly confused by running into the party in the middle of what was supposed to be a mostly abandoned level of a dungeon, she also gave the general lay of the land as she knew it, and said she'll come back soon to help escort them down to the temple's level and talk to the priests.
GM Observations
So, finishing up the delve from last session wasn't too problematic, with the party getting a very friendly reaction result from the kobolds, fighting a pair of gelatinous cubes (who, with their abysmally low movement, are honestly not THAT much of a threat unless you just stupidly run right into them, and generally got a good amount of loot.
We also finally got around to explaining a bit what the deal was with the warriors they met. The players had been very confused about what had just happened, and if these warriors were simply just "things" spawned by the dungeon, if they were rival adventurers or something else entirely. I did not want to reveal too many details before I had figured out what exactly the Elemental Temple actually was going to be about so I kept things vague which contributed to the confusion.
After talking things over with people on Discord (thanks folks!) I got a better idea of what the temple wants as a faction, which in turn made it so I can actually figure out how to run them and how they would react to the knowledge of the party's existence. After all, a topic that was brought up during that discussion that I have had on my mind, is just how much information do NPC groups or factions have about the PCs?
You as a referee already know what the players are planning on doing, how they plan on doing it, what resources and personnel they have and so on, and so presenting a competent and devious enemy which also knows these things can get the game into outright hostile GMing territory, since it is a lot easier to just make a group that can outright kill the party if they wanted to.
Obviously that's an extreme case and not really good campaign design, but it is something I've been thinking ever since writing up the rival adventuring party for my previous campaign.
We also finally got around to explaining a bit what the deal was with the warriors they met. The players had been very confused about what had just happened, and if these warriors were simply just "things" spawned by the dungeon, if they were rival adventurers or something else entirely. I did not want to reveal too many details before I had figured out what exactly the Elemental Temple actually was going to be about so I kept things vague which contributed to the confusion.
After talking things over with people on Discord (thanks folks!) I got a better idea of what the temple wants as a faction, which in turn made it so I can actually figure out how to run them and how they would react to the knowledge of the party's existence. After all, a topic that was brought up during that discussion that I have had on my mind, is just how much information do NPC groups or factions have about the PCs?
You as a referee already know what the players are planning on doing, how they plan on doing it, what resources and personnel they have and so on, and so presenting a competent and devious enemy which also knows these things can get the game into outright hostile GMing territory, since it is a lot easier to just make a group that can outright kill the party if they wanted to.
Obviously that's an extreme case and not really good campaign design, but it is something I've been thinking ever since writing up the rival adventuring party for my previous campaign.
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