RPG Recap: Beyond the Temple of the Abyss, 2012-02-25
Saturday, the 7th day of the Red Moon, 937
With the death of Alp and Jared the Acolytes, the rest of the party made their way back to the surface and then back to Edgwold to recuperate.
Monday, the 9th day of the Red Moon, 937
After a full day off, Torben, Mero, and Lyweylln were still not ready to head back to the Gladwell place. Derick had already had plenty of time off, though, and Delian was looking for revenge. Rocky and Rigby, the mercenaries, were ready for some more treasure.
Before heading back to the caverns, Derick decided to get in on the looting he’d missed out on while down below. He boldly strode into the priest’s quarters, knocked in the doors to Alp and Jared’s quarters and took most interesting stuff: the sickly spiderfrog in its cage and the big blue lapis lazuli. Old Buckner the apothecary paid 250 gold sovereigns for the spiderfrog, and 300 for Delian’s few remaining seeds.
With most of their gold stashed in their quarters, Delian and Derick rounded up Rocky and Rigby and headed south to the Gladwells’. Once there, they had an irritating revelation: they had neither Torben’s map (which he’d taken with him) nor Jared’s, which had been looted by nobody-knew-whom. Fortunately for them, both Delian and Derick were getting to be old hands at this and remembered exactly how to get to their destination: the old dwarfish mine.
They were there in no time, and ready to face the skeletons from which they’d fled, last time. What they weren’t read for was a four-foot spiderfrog leaping out of the darkness at the east end of the mine’s top chamber. Read or not, though, they made short work of it. Within seconds, Derick had beaten it to death. The group had had their fill of spiderfrogs by this point, and left the corpse alone. They split into two groups and found the inanimate skeletons. Derick and Delian each attacked a skeleton, and at that the undead sprang to their feet and engaged the party.
Rigby got to work loading the treasure into his pack while everyone else engaged the skeletons. The fight was quick and brutal, but in the end, the living prevailed with no losses. The treasure was divided more evenly – mostly due to its great weight – and the group decided to press its luck and head forward.
They righted one of the mine carts and got it on the rails. Rocky, Rigby, and Delian squeezed into the cart and Derick pushed. This proved to be one of the best ideas of the day, because as soon as the cart began to pass through the northern passage, a huge pendulum blade swung down from a channel in the jamb, crashing into the cart instead of an unsuspecting adventurer. The group was shaken, but not sliced.
They were further shaken to hear a chorus of shouting voices from the northern passage, speaking Draconic. The group quickly hauled the mine cart in front of the passage to form a makeshift blockade and fell back a bit. A wave of shouting kobolds emerged from the darkness, charging the barricade. Derick felled two with arrows before they reached the carts, and Rocky’s axe killed two more. When another wave emerged from the darkness, though, Delian finished things by casting Sleep. As the remaining seven kobolds lay peacefully in slumber, the party climbed over the carts and slit their seven throats.
Derick gathered up their treasure: a whopping 122 copper pieces.
At the bottom of the shaft, they found a large chamber – again of fine dwarfish construction – with its far end sealed off with a strange wall cobbled together from pieces of this and that. In the center of its base was a set of small double doors, and in that a small slot at (kobold) eye level. As Derick peered through, another kobold appeared on the other side. Derick cleverly gouged at the kobold’s eyes, but had his fingers bitten for the trouble. Delian tried to press for information, but the kobold was not cooperating, especially after Delian apologized “for killing all [his] friends.” When the slot opened again to throw a vial of burning oil at the elf, the party decided to give up for now and try the south passage.
Their descent here was slow: the passage was damp and occasionally quite slippery. Here and there, sticky blue strands nearly a quarter inch thick ran from wall to wall. Rigby judged them no serious threat and burned them way with his torch. Further down, the party began to find weird metal clamps attached to the rails, one of which had a length of (not sticky) blue braided rope attached to it. Derick pulled the rest of the rope up. At the far end was the severed upper half of a goblin in weird copper-and-lizard-skin armor and wearing a large spherical helmet with a crystal front plate. Inside, the grimacing face was surrounded by purple fungus. Derick made a half-hearted attempt to remove the plate from the helmet, but gave up quickly. He couldn’t cut the blue rope, and so smashed the clamp to bits and tossed the whole thing into his pack.
At the bottom of the tunnel was another room like the one with the kobolds’ wall, but this one was badly damaged, and mostly submerged beneath cold, dark water. A few dead and shriveled kobold corpses were scattered around and Derick, hoping for more copper, began to rifle through them. The purple fungus covering their bodies, at least, was happy for the attention. It released a cloud of spores that left Derick choking and clutching his throat. Delian hauled him away by the ankle and decided it was time to get the heck out of the caves.
The group carried him Derick back through the mine shaft, down out of the mines, up through the complex junction, into the butchery, and up into the stable… where the purple splotches that had begun to dot his face and throat began to blacken and smolder. In a panic, Delian sent Rocky and Rigby back into the caves while he went back to town for help.
While he was gone, Derick came to, feeling like crap, and with Rocky hovering nervously over him with an axe. Shortly thereafter, the sound of shuffling and moaning could be heard from a nearby passage. Derick send the henchmen away with the loot and made a last stand.
He fought valiantly, dispatching one zombie and surviving blow after blow from the others. Eventually, though, with both his arms broken and several ribs cracked, he succumbed. When Delian returned with Esbert the Acolyte, the whole group went back in for Derick’s body. They emerged victorious with Derick’s remains, having slain the remaining zombies and only lost Esbert, who never seemed quite ready for the whole experience.
With the corpses and treasure loaded up, the group made tracks for home.
In Memoriam
R.I.P., Derick the Soldier
R.I.P., Esbert the Acolyte (we hardly knew ye)
Loot
- Derick sold Jared’s spiderfrog to Old Buckner for 250 gp
- Delian sold his two remaining seeds for 300 gp
- Delian ended up with one of the dwarfish skeleton’s shields
- Rocky took everything that was on Derick’s body
- 600 gp from the dwarfs’ pile
- 15 gems from the dwarfs’ pile
- 20 pounds of gold ore (from the dwarfs’ pile also)
XP
Delian : 305 + 1066 = 1366 (Level up at 4000)
Rocky : 0 + 766 = 766 (Level up at 2000)
Rigby : 0 + 313 = 313 (Level up at 1200)