Rappan Athuk Week – Part Two

In town for a week, the PCs directed the local wizard/alchemist to brew another jug of healing (at a cost of 2,400 sp!). Frederick also put out fliers to hire a new man, and successfully employed the veteran Oswin as his new bodyguard. Various experiments with the ruby dagger were attempted on subjects caught by the local rat catcher, to no avail. The PCs returned to Rappan Athuk.

The players had the idea to make use of the continual light candelabra in the main mausoleum. But the special key seemed to be missing! They found it again, and quickly ducked into the trapped mausoleum, grabbed the candelabra, and left. They also searched the two side-mausoleum, finding only a single room each with empty, sarcophagi and a few broken, gnawed-off bones and scraps of cloth. ⁱ

The PCs were somewhat irked to find their old rope gone, strung up a new one, and started climbing down the Well again. The 1-in-20 chance that the rope comes loose came up “1” for Frederick, who landed hard in the water at the bottom for some dice of damage. The players were getting very unhappy about this level of risk. The magic candelabra dimmed from double-strength to merely normal-torch strength, and more fear saves were rolled and failed. ⁱⁱ

Only one path forward was apparent, through the clawed-shaped cavern with the piercers to the east, so the PCs went single-file in that direction. ⁱⁱⁱ Creeping forward, Gardy blasted with her magic wand once, twice, three times until the piercers stopped falling from the ceiling. Then the PCs ran forward with daggers and blades, and the fleshy/mouthy/tentacly soft topsides of the stony things, and stabbed, stabbed, stabbed until they were bloody and collapsed.

The PCs went forward and opened the secret door. Another 5’ wide snaky tunnel went north-by-northwest, corkscrewing once downward, and then entering a medium-sized cave. At the PC’s light, dozens, hundreds of rats could be seen on the floor scurrying away out of sight, a long squirming carpet of chittering fur, into various tiny holes and side-tunnels. More fear checks as at least one player uttered tangible disgust. Frederick thought to raise his light up and check the high wall/ceiling for dangers, and indeed – four pairs of large, hatred-filled green eyes! Instead of being surprised, Frederick had bought the party time to roll initiative, which they won. Gardy raised her wand and blasted – two huge panther-like creatures, hazy in their dim light, with long green tentacles sprouting from their shoulders, tumbled out of the high alcoves.

Two more of the creatures sprang down and attacked viciously with tentacles and bites. Rosalinde was grabbed and bitten, dead, her magic axe clattering on the stone. Gardy blasted that one again with the wand, and it failed to withstand it, paralyzed. Other PCs lunged at the remaining one but spears and swords slashed a foot away from where it really was – Frederick recognized the effect from the displacer cloak he wore. The displacer beast lashed out at Till (Gardy’s man), tore his arms from his sockets, and he died. The PCs bashed at the thing nigh-helplessly, its tough skin almost proof from damage. Maxine picked up Rosalinde’s magic axe. In frustration, Gardy fired the wand of paralysis again into the melee, paralyzing Iparaguire and Garabed, but not the beast! Oswin was grabbed and killed, a bloody mess. Finally the Veteran Maxine landed the 7^th blow on the thing, and it thankfully died. The PCs shook off paralysis and dread from losing 3 fighters to a pair of beasts, and made sure to finish off the creatures that were magically stunned.

Exploring the back part of the cave, Gardy found a batch of strange mushrooms in one of the alcoves and scooped them up, thinking them to be some hallucinogenic substance good for carousing later on. The far wall of the cave fell away in an open abyss and cliff out of sight, and water could be heard. Gardy cast her one levitate spell, took a candelabra, and magically descended the cliff. Several rats actually jumped off the cliff at her, trying to viciously attack. Hovering above the bottom, some 90’ down, she found a placid pool of water and a short way across, a sandy beach with a closed iron door beyond it. She rose back up the cliff and the party conferenced. With almost half the group dead, it seemed wise to return to town and get additional help.

As the party turned to leave the cave, a new threat emerged at the mouth of the exit tunnel – a dead, naked man, heavily tattooed, eyes and ears stitched closed, moaning for brains – a juju zombie! It stumbled forward into the cave and the party meleed, their blows raining down to no effect. So the organized a fighting withdrawal, wizards entering the tunnel first, with Maxine bravely circling, slashing at the thing with the +2 axe, then back into the tunnel herself. Worried about being trapped in the tunnel with thing on their rear, Frederick cast web to block the tunnel entrance – a d6 was rolled it came up “1”, and Maxine’s axe was likewise hopeless stuck in the web! So they wisely sacrificed it, heading back up the tunnel and returning to the Well. ^iv

So now the PCs only had to climb up the rope to the outside. Garabed rolled a “1” on the climb check not once, but twice in a row, and died there. Frederick likewise rolled a “1”, took too much damage, failed his save vs. death, and died. The rest made it up and escaped back to town. The players took a break for some Indian food and collegial debate about the design of the dungeon and the climbing rule. ^v

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i The PCs would have to repeat this action on every future escapade, because both the key and the candelabra teleport back to their starting locations at the end of a day.

ii At the end of the first night, Paul made a good point here about how the OED saving throw rule was a bit opaque to players, with numbers not appearing on the PC sheets as is customary. So thereafter I tried to be more explicit about what roll modifiers were happening in each case. They’re on the OED Player Aid Card, but in the future should probably be posted even bigger on the outside of my screen.

iii See the prior note about the mapping glitch that made it look like there was only one path forward (fortunately for the PCs).

iv This creature was only hittable with a magic weapon, which only the Veteran Maxine had at this point. Iparaguire was constantly stabbing with the ruby-hilted dagger, known to be magical, but which had no hit bonus. At this point there was some discussion that the hero of the protagonist of our story was really Maxine.

v The players were pretty much totally steaming at this point about the deadly climb checks, and you can’t help but sympathize. They’d rather heroically pulled off the fights with displacer beasts and juju zombie, and then had multiple PC lives slip out of their fingertips at the very end with daylight in sight. No money treasure found on this foray. Monster HD of 48 slain, so XP was 4800 ÷ 3.5 = 1370 each (685 for the henchman Maxine).