Conquering the Barbarian Altanis: Session 161
Adventurers
| Character | Race | Class | Description |
|---|---|---|---|
| Tikatu | Human | Druid level 3 | A dirty little man with dark and dirty skin, wearing loincloth with no back. “What will be, will be” is his favourite aphorism. |
| Amari | Human | Ranger level 2 | Black hair that shines blue. Scarred like a gladiator. |
| Kho Rimbo | Human | Magic-user level 3 | A knife throwing wizard extraordinaire. Covered in ritual knife scars. Cuts himself whilst casting. Prone to being sarcastic. |
| Ambros | Human | Cleric level 6 | Follower of Aniu, Lord of Time. |
| Ignaeus | Elf | Fighter level 4 / magic-user level 5 | A slightly weathered looking elf with dull blonde hair and chiseled features. Seeks wealth and knowledge. |
| Foxglove | Human | Thief level 6 | A willowy human, long hair ties in a pony tail, looks a bit dangerous and dainty at the same time. |
Thistleburn 5th, Earthday
The party of six, plus porter Irial, had found the cave Old Crus had pointed them to few days ago. Kho Rimbo begged the old wizard to tell him of any dungeon or lair worth plundering. He endured insults, and in return was rewarded with a scribble illustrating a path to a cave system inhabited by former slaves and servants of the vampire lord that Old Crus had driven out.
It was late morning when the party descended into the cave. First chamber they encountered reeked of body odour. Six pig-faced orcs were resting in their filthy bedrolls.
“Surrender in the name of Law and we might spare you!” Ambros thundered.
A prolonged, wet fart was the reply he received.
Dissatisfied, the adventurers had killed them all. Ambros smashed two, Ignaeus hacked two, while Amari and Foxglove each stabbed one to death. The chamber was some a natural cave of some thirty by forty feet. There was a tunnel on each side. Leather curtains served as sort of doors to the south and west.
“Look, chests...”
Indeed, lazy orcs had three broken chests. They contained a total of four thousand and ninety three copper pieces, as well as eight hundred and one electrum pieces. Adventurers took the latter, but left the former.
Peeking through the south curtain revealed the tunnel thirty feet long terminating in a t-shaped junction. Peeking through the west curtain revealed a phalanx of eighteen kobolds ready to fight.
Adventurers stepped through the curtain with confidence of Lords. Then they proceeded to butcher the pesky critters, crushing their morale. Survivors scattered, fleeing for their lives.
The kidney shaped cave had three exits, all curtained. Party came through the central one on the east side. There was another on the north-east side, and one on the far west side. Adventurers pursued the west exit, which led them to a winding a tunnel, which in turn led them to two cultists inhaling some sort of smoke.
Approaching them did not help too much. The cave the hooded figures were meditating in was roughly circular. A dugout firepit in the center burned and cackled. Figures were men-like, or at least their tattoo-covered faces indicated so. Four dead kobolds close to them.
Communication attempts were rebuffed.
“We are far too busy to waste time on the likes of YOU!”
At that moment the party was surprised from behind by a pack of gnolls and kobolds. Although outnumbered, the adventurers used the narrow tunnel to their advantage. They slowly hacked beastmen to death. But the war of attrition was not going to their advantage.
Ignaeus made the call to cast Sleep. He knocked out all the remaining beastmen. He also put to sleep Tikatu, Amari, and Irial. Victorious, the adventurers plundered the corpses, recovering a total of three hundred and seven silvers pieces, and five hundred and eighty-eight gold pieces.
Leaving behind the rude cultists, adventurers backtracked to the kidney-shaped cave. From there there went north-east, traversing another curving tunnel. This led them to a largish, foul smelling chamber. Size of straw mats suggested this might have been the gnoll's chamber.
Curtain to the west led to a long tunnel stretching from south to north. The further south it went, the narrow it got. North direction passed by another tunnel—smelling of bear faeces—eventually ending with an elongated cave.
Exploring it was rewarded with spiders surprising the adventurers from above. Amari the Ranger had proven her worth in this encounter. She had slain two of the large spiders herself, while Ambros crushed the last one. Tikatu somehow survived.
Foxglove found a desiccated corpse with intact leather belt. Upon the belt were two coin pouches, holding a total of two hundred and fifty seven platinum pieces.
Opting to avoid going down the tunnel smelling like bear shit, the party followed the tunnel leading out of the spider cave. They eventually reached a junction splitting left and right. They turned right and confidently marched straight into the owlbear. In its lair.
The owlbear was thoroughly displeased with such display of disrespect. It promptly barreled into Ignaeus and Ambros. The duo deflected and dodged the onslaught.
“RAAAAAAAAH!!!”
Tiny roars echoed from behind them as a small army of kobolds wearing little pointy green hats charged from around the corner.
Kho Rimbo spoke in languages and summoned a large python made of smoke. It hissed and bit at the pathetic critters, sending them crying back to wherever they came from.
After getting bear-slapped, Ignaeus fell back from the front line. The Ambros nearly got beaked in half. Elf cast Mirror Image and then rejoined the fray. Although outnumbered, owlbear fought ferociously, clawing and beaking whomever dared to attack it.
It was momentarily confused when it hugged Ignaeus, and the elf just disappeared in a puff of smoke. Foxglove the Wise attempted to exploit the moment, and deliver backstab to the creature. The animal sensed him.
The thief was struck by one claw, almost severing his hand. Then he was struck by the second claw, tearing his chest to shreds. And, as if that hadn't been enough, the owlbear bellowed and then bit into his side.
Foxglove was dragged to the back.
Bleeding profusely from its many wounds, the beast roared and charged Ignaeus in its last moment of defiance.
“Poof!”
Mirror image disappeared with a poof of smoke. Real Ignaeus capitalised on the opportunity by driving his broadsword into the creature's maw. He twisted it, jerked upwards, and then jumped back as the creature slumped, dead.
Ransacking its lair revealed a bone case with Protection from Undead scroll. From then on the adventurers rolled through rest of the cave system, indiscriminately slaying everyone and everything they encountered.
There are two happenings worth mentioning.
First was greedy Tikatu pouring himself some pomegranate juice from yellow chalices. As he did so he felt increasingly heavy. Others observed in horror as the pygmy bubbled and inflated by the second, until the transformed into deformed, obese blob. Ambros sighed and rescued him with Remove Curse spell. Second was recovery of a small, metallic, boxy hand-sized object from a stiff corpse of man dressed in red shirt and tight black pants of unfamiliar textile.
Loaded with treasure, the adventurers returned to Ironburg.
Ironburg, where miners refused to work.
Ironburg, where Rall Kyle was drinking himself into lunacy.
Ironburg, where Kho Rimbo lied to be the Eyes of Wizard-King Klekess Racoba.
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