RPG Recap: Beyond the Temple of the Abyss, 2014-09
Monday, 29th day of the Leafy Moon, 937
Monday morning, the party arrived at the temple to take watch and they didn’t like what they found. The usually boring and unremarkable ruin was overrun with cats. The guards awaiting relief were all on edge and eager to get gone. They argued amongst themselves about whether they’d actually seen or heard anything “down there,” but clearly they’d had a worse time of things than usual.
Once they were gone, the party was agreed: there was no way that they were going down into the dungeons. They’d just lie about having done so.
This wasn’t quite a solution, though! Captain Epstien had said he’d be sending an inspector to look into the problem of the missing mystical seals (which the party had stolen and tried to fence just earlier in the week). They decided to solve things more permanently by collapsing the dungeon entrance down into the dungeon. (“What about Drip [the guy who lives in the dungeon]?” asked one party member. “Yeah? What about him?” replied another. That ended that conversation.)
There was agreement on the best way to demolish the entrance: call in the goblins. After first scheduling their raid on the vampire’s lair (for Saturday), they explained what they needed, and the goblins sent out a bomber. He sent the party away from the building and with good old goblin know-how, brought much of the foundation crumbling down into a heap atop the old stairway down.
The party returned to town to report the mysterious and unexpected collapse of the ruins. “It’s just a good thing we weren’t any deeper down when the rumbling started!”
Epstien was not entirely convinced. “Tell you what,” he said, “you go back there and tomorrow I’ll send over … The Dwarf.”
Tuesday, 30th day of the Leafy Moon, 937
Tuesday morning, the dwarf showed up in a dune buggy, none to pleased to be dealing with this situation or the riff raff on the scene. He got the party’s story and headed to the site to scope things out. As he did so, the cats grew more anxious, circling and hissing, until one grew bolder and attacked him. He tore the cat from his face, threw it into the weeds, and shot it with a small pistol produced from inside his jumpsuit. This marked the end of his inspection, and he asked the party whether they’d like to revise their story.
They declined, and he explained that he was going to have to tell Epstien what happened, and that the party should probably get in front of the story, if they wanted to save their credibility.
“Well,” they waffled, “okay. We weren’t actually inside. We were nearby. And we didn’t want to get in trouble. But we definitely had no idea what might have happened.”
The dwarf shrugged and was on his way.
“Huh.” Dera was surprised. “I was all but sure we were just gonna kill that guy.” Somebody wondered whether Knash’s absence was related to the dwarf’s unmolested exit.
After some further discussion, the gang decided to hunt the dwarf down … and talk to him. They mounted up and sped off toward Teak’s Bottom, where some grizzled ex-adventurer in town said they might find him. In fact, they found him at Bridgend, halfway to Teak’s Bottom, and got him to pull over and chat.
“Okay,” they lied, “we decided we should tell you the new, revised version of our story.”
The dwarf was tired of it. “You’re in league with goblins and had one of them blow the place up while you stood out in the field.” This put the party’s situation in a new light.
The dwarf made an offer: if they’d agree to head into the caverns under the Gladwell place and do a little reconnaissance, he’d delay his report to Epstien a few days, giving the party some time to prepare their flight from punishment. They agreed to the plan and took the dwarf’s equipment back to Edgwold.
Wednesday, 1st day of the Frost Moon, 937
In the morning, Perrin, Brenda, Rago, Dera, and Hoyte headed to the blasted magic tree in the woods south of the Astodan, planning to use the portal in the tree’s upper trunk to enter the dungeon without alerting Gladwell or his men. They arrived in the dungeon, southeast of the complex junction, and made their way toward the mine tunnels. Only halfway there, though, they encountered two ghasts and immediately turned tail and ran. They reached the portal exit and leapt through, scrambling or falling from the tree. Several were badly hurt, but no one died, and the ghasts declined to follow them down.