In our last session, Asher the thief met his demise at the hands of
a giant serpent. The party stayed for a week in town and got to know
their new companion, Zort, Adept of Odin. Imric scribed another
sleep scroll while Roger foraged for some raw material for his
healing poultices. Thus rested & restocked, the party headed back to
the Giant Fall dungeon.
They wanted to continue exploring the northern section, past where
Asher had been killed. But they never made it that far – passing the
old library, they ran into a pack of Goblins led by three white
apes. After a round of flaming oil and a few rounds of melee,
several of the remaining Goblins fled north with an ape. While
deciding what to do, Imric spotted a large wolf approaching from the
south, soon followed by the Goblins and ape that had fled. They were
trying to sneak up on the party! Instead, they faced Imric's bow and
sleep spell, and a few more rounds of melee for good measure. In the
end, Zort, Rolgrim and Ambrose were wounded, so the party collected
a few meager coins from the Goblins, the ape and wolf pelts, and
returned to town.
While in town the party sold the ape pelts to an exotic clothier
they came across in the Frostmark market, and Imric bought a tome
from a traveling salesman that was said to aid in identification of
magical artifacts (Ellwood's Forgotten Compendium). Zort visited the
Temple of Soldra and managed to procure a potion of healing and a
vial of holy water. The next morning they returned to the dungeon,
this time exploring the south and east portions.
First, they came across an old workshop. Inside were various old
tools and benches, mostly in a state of disrepair. There was one
exit door. Imric listened at it, hearing clattering and scraping
noises. Zort's desiccated finger became warm, signaling chaos
nearby. They opened the door, and ten skeletons in chain armor were
almost upon them! Zort turned away four with the help of Odin,
leaving the party to battle the remaining six. In the ensuing melee,
the skeletons were destroyed but Roger and Zort were wounded. They
retreated back to the workshop to heal themselves, and continued on.
Next they came upon a circular room whose floor was covered in
weeds. They could see an odd lump in the center of the room, beneath
the weeds, and Roger, not wanting to take any chances, fired an
arrow at it. Almost immediately, the weeds formed into three
spider-like creatures who advanced faster than expected. The party
met them in the hallway outside the room, and was able to defeat
them with minor injuries to Imric and Roger. When they entered the
room, they discovered that the lump under the weeds had been the
body of some poor adventurer. On him they found a pouch filled with
gold coins and a scroll of undead protection.
Moving on, the party came to a large chamber with cracks in the
floor and chunks of stone scattered about, with a larger pile of
stone at one end. A strong smell of decay wafted up from the cracks
in the floor, but before the party could do much they were attacked
by two ghouls. They killed the ghouls without too much trouble –
luckily no one was paralyzed. Roger dropped a torch down one of the
cracks, and peered down, spying more ghouls in another chamber
perhaps 20 feet below, moving in and out of the torchlight. He had
limited success throwing rocks at the ghouls from above, while the
others searched the rubble. Imric had much more success at locating
a secret panel in the floor beneath the larger rock pile, concealing
a chest in a small hollow. Inside were gems and jewels, and some
appeared to be quite valuable.
Imric collected the loot and the party headed north. They went
through a door and into a dimly lit room where they were surprised
by a man in chain armor, surrounded by four skeletons. Zort quickly
turned the skeletons away but the man inflicted a grave wound on
Imric with but a touch. Imric backed away and the (now presumed to
be) evil Cleric soon fell in melee. The party stripped him of his
chain armor and mace, and returned to Frostmark.
## Referee Notes:
The initial encounter with the goblins and apes was a result of
'dungeon re-stocking', which I am now known for and which makes the
players leery of long delays in town. They never know what might
appear in a previously cleared section of dungeon.
The OD&D treasure tables can sometimes give crazy results. The chest
the party found contained over 10,000gp in jewels. I kept the result
as-is since I rolled it randomly and the party had not had any hauls
of that magnitude in previous sessions.
