# Return to the Known Lands - Damned Boots
# Sessions #22 and #23 (2/20/21, 2/27/21)

## PCs:

* Louis (FM 2)
* Osan (Elf F/MU 2/1)
* Omes (Half FM 2)
* Arro (MU 1)
* Habru (Cleric 2)

## NPCs:

* Habru's war dog, named Dog
* Horace - Habru's retainer - Cleric 1
* Bunco - Omes's Knave 1

## Hirelings:

* Arvay - wagon driver
* Samtik - porter
* Durdoon - meatshield

## Session notes:

In the last session [0], the party discovered a dungeon tavern and
befriended a group of stone-skinned warriors, the Kamenni. In these
two sessions they continued exploring level one.

Heading north out of the caverns, they made their way through a
locked door with the help of Arro’s knock scroll. On the other side
of the door was a small finished area with several connected
rooms. One of the rooms appeared to be an alchemy lab, which the
party searched thoroughly, coming away with three potions. Louis
tested one and determined it to be a flying potion. A western tunnel
led to a boat launch which opened along an underground river.

Their was a fair bit of headroom above the river, so Louis thought
it would be a good time to scout the river with his potion. He drank
it and took off from the boat launch, flying low over the river and
under a bridge, confirming the party’s suspicions that this river
was the one they had crossed via a bridge in the last session. He
followed the river, passing a side tunnel, then to a waterfall which
dropped about 40 feet to a cave. Thinking that was at least level
two, and not wanting to explore further alone, he flew back to the
party.

While Louis was off flying around, Osan and the rest of the party
explored a few tunnels off to the east. Osan’s Elvish senses alerted
him to a secret door at the head of a staircase down. He opened it,
and found a small room with a silver disc set into the center of
floor. The disc was about a foot across, and had a number ‘3’
engraved in it. After some discussion, the party decided to leave
the disc room and staircase for later exploration. When Louis
returned from his flying sortie, the entire party headed back south,
there was a tunnel they had yet to explore on the other side of the
bridge

That tunnel south was narrow, about five feet wide, necessitating
single file marching order. After a short distance, the tunnel
opened into a small cavern. As they entered it, a group of five Orcs
charged at the party from across the cavern, swords and spears in
hand! As melee was joined, Habru cast a fear spell, and one of the
Orcs fled north. The other four fell quickly and the party moved on
after looting the bodies of any valuables.

After a quick break, the party headed south again into another
unexplored tunnel. This one led to a long, narrow cavern whose
entrance was blocked by a pile of rocks. They were able to move
enough rocks to crawl up and in, again in single file. Inside the
dark cave, against the far wall, were three black wooden coffins
with broken lids. As the party formed up and moved closer, three
undead creatures rose from the coffins and moved to attack. Habru
and Horace both failed to turn the creatures, and the fight was
on. The party prevailed, but Omes and Habru both felt themselves
weakened by the creatures’ touch during the melee. After the battle,
they were barely able to walk, and it was clear they would be doing
no more fighting today.

A search of the cave revealed a cache of coins and a pair of boots
under one of the coffins. Arro, thinking the boots magical, tried
them on and quickly discovered that when he walked, the boots made a
loud, thundering noise. They appeared to confer no benefit to the
wearer. Of course Arro was unable to remove the boots, finding them
quite stuck on his feet. What to do? The party had to get back to
town and rest, but could not risk Arro’s boots alerting the
wandering denizens of the dungeon. Thinking a minute, Arro summoned
his retainer Durdoon, who was nice enough to give Arro a piggyback
all the way back to Larm. Once in town, and with his share of the
loot, Arro made a beeline for the temple, begging for a remove curse
spell. An 800gp donation later, and thus quieted, he gave a sizeable
bonus to Durdoon.

## LL Notes:

The undead were wights, who drained three points of STR with each
touch, weakening two of the PCs, who I ruled had enough weakness to
make fighting dangerous (-2 to-hit and saves). The weakness was
temporary however, with lost STR returning a few hours later.

The boots Arro found were Boots of Thundering, and of course quite
cursed. It was quick thinking on his player’s part to have his hired
mercenary carry him out of the dungeon. Arro left the boots in the
town temple after having the remove curse spell cast upon them.

[0]: gopher://gopher.smolderingwizard.com/0/rpg/play_reports/known-lands/return-known-lands-21.txt