Shadowdark Thracia 10
Players: Strabon (RIP) Ebane (RIP) Bomb Epicaste NPC (RIP)
Recap:
Delve began with the party greeting their warband at the entrance. Bomb noticed the traitor in their midst but did not call him out. The party entered into room 1-1 and gleaned intel off the Cultists sweeping the floors about the situation below. The Cultists divulged that the Cult has held the temple of Athena (which is now a temple of Thanatos) after successfully taking it over. They plan to use the teleporter to push into the lower floors, but no one they sent ever came back.
The party visited the cultists at the temple of Athena and saw that the statue of Athena was toppled over to cover the teleporter, though how good of a strategy this is remains to be seen. Instead of investigating the weapons vault further like they planned, they found a secret door behind the statue of Apollo. Strabon determined that it was rigged, Bomb triggered it from a safe distance with his 10ft pole. The door blasted out two arrows that alerted the Cleric at the temple.
The party passed through the secret door and found the room with the demon statue, which they had looted way back in session 4. What they found now was another secret door to the south. Past it was a staircase leading down to an ancient complex. The party figured this was connected to the space Parthenios entered in Session 8. It was connected to a large chamber with 6 doors spread across its left and right walls. The party investigated the altar, following the lizard footsteps in the dust. Ebane touched the rotted tapestry behind the altar and it crumbled to dust, revealing a pair of ancient double doors.
The party made their way through the doors and followed the trail further down. They reached a room where they salvaged some exquisite ancient pottery filled with faded arcane dust. They broke through some stalagmites and found a secret door. They were pursued by a living statue shortly after who packed a punch. After defeating it, they then reached an ancient reptilian tomb guarded by two skeletal lizardmen wearing rings. Ebane showed his might in this battle and killed both of them. First one with an exquisite throw of his shuriken. The second by pulling off its ring. The rings both crumpled to dust the instant the skeletons were destroyed.
A rumble. Then a scream from the room beyond. The players had awakened an ancient evil.
They decided to run back the way they came but through the door to the altar room they could see a great winged figure and a Magma Elemental. They went through the eastern door in the observatory, but saw that it led to a room that almost certainly was trapped. They were tempted by the statue with a crown on its head.
Deciding to try their luck escaping past the horrid monstrosities blocking their exit they dovetailed it, taking burns from getting too close to the elemental. The winged creature at the altar revealed itself to be the Immortal Lizard King. The party, ending up right next to it, suffered its powers of decay. Ebane and Strabon were instantly downed. Epicaste was then Doomed to wither away. Rather than kill Bomb, the Immortal King teleported out of the room, leaving his elemental to clean up the rest. The Elemental incinerated the bodies of Strabon and Ebane while marching after Bomb, who turned invisible and ran for his life.
Making it out via the trap-door in the trash room, Bomb saw that the Gnoll guard room was now taken over by Lizardmen, however he could not understand a word they said. Instead with a torch depleted he ran northwards looking for the exit. He stumbled upon carnage at the temple of Athena, where the Immortal King was destroying the Cultists who were stationed there. Bomb was lucky to make it out with his life.
Back outside he relayed to the warband what happened. They failed a morale check and quit on the spot.
10XP awarded this session.
Thoughts:
Oh my god it happened.
They found the guy! They found the fucking Immortal King! I had a feeling they might actually end up finding him today just given their professed course of action, but there was so much opportunity for them to get distracted, and even if they explored the ancient complex it would have been surprising if they found the Immortal King that easily.
It was those skeletal guards that got em. That encounter always felt a bit weird to me when I read it, but it gave the players a hype fight before they absolutely ate shit.
As soon as that Lich woke up I telegraphed that they needed to GTFO. However this was absolutely one of the worst things that could happen to a party delving Thracia. This encounter is almost certainly going to end in a death and it did. It was shocking that one of them even survived.
I realize now that this dungeon can really be a playground if you embrace things spiralling out of control. The Immortal King is a major player. I kind of fucked up by making his summon a Magma elemental, I don't think I had this particular guy statted in my conversion notes, which I realize more and more are not good. But hey, I have to accept that this Thracia is not the same Thracia as the book, this is the one that gets played at my table.
Anyways that fight was crazy hard. Shadowdark's rules probably make it a bit more hardcore. I realize that when you are at the same level roughly as an opponent you are quite well matched, but against something like this? You're fucking cooked.
I had more fun using a Magma elemental in that encounter anyways. Shit was hype.
The Immortal King is also immensely fun to have in the dungeon. He is insanely powerful compared to all the other combatants on Level 2. There are many places we could take this.
Also: this campaign may need to go beyond Thracia. I think it is time to break out some other modules and seed them into this world. Any new level 1s are going to need more treasure than this dungeon may provide.