Shadowdark Thracia 12
Players: Arete Parthenios Carly (RIP)
Recap:
Carly the Priest of Saint Terragnis introduced herself to Arete and Parthenios in Minos, as they loaded their ass with torches and lanterns. They made their way through the jungle to the Lost City, using the old road. Once there, they dragged the braying beast of burden to the cult's entrance. The cultist was reluctant to let them in with such a loud pack animal, but they insisted. He also told them of the schism among the cult.
When they took the donkey into the caverns, it made a fuss when it came to the rope bridge. Carly removed the packed goods to try and get it across, but it just kept getting louder and more resistant. It attracted the attention of escaped slaves climbing up from chasm below. The party threw a rope down but only one slave made it out. They offered him the donkey to ride home in. He accepted at first, but returned it instantly after it tried to kick him.
Arete shoved the donkey into the chasm. It hit some gnolls.
Pushing further into the Caverns they went eastward after crossing the rope bridge but ran into the wolverine. They did not care to deal with it.
Sprinting across the cult's burial chamber, they made it across to the other side of Level 1 and reached the gates of death. They pushed past the Immortal Cultist guards and opened the gate, entering the black hallway. They came out the other side feeling woozy from the incense. They investigated the cultist bodies in the room and were ambushed by the Wight. The Wight was turned and went through the north corridor.
The party investigated the southern doors and disarmed the traps. They were able to pry the warded door open and made their way into the room with the demon skull. The demon skull answered two of their questions.
Is the Immortal King a servant of Thanatos? Nay.
Is there something that can kill the immortal king in the realm of Thanatos? Yay.
Arete and Carly were marked for death. White skulls appeared tattooed into the back of their right hands.
The party took the south hallway out. They used oil and torch to burn away the toxic mold colony. They also set fire to the skeletons. Parthenios used a spell to distract the skeletons. Carly reached into the fire to grab the lockbox but was burned. She saw a vision of Thanatos and tried to kill him, but was met with his embrace.
Arete intuited the dead end was a secret door and was proven correct. She tried to climb the rocks westwards to cross the chasm (1-14) but slipped when inserting a piton. Falling down 30' she was saved by her rope and ended up swinging over level 2 right above Grastic Hammerclay.
She asked him where the nearest exit was and he pointed south. Using the rest of the rope she and Parthenios made their way down to Level 2 and used the stairs to make their way back to Level 1, making a run for it back out of the Cult's exit.
The strongbox ended up containing 25sp and 15gp. It also contained the Rod of Thanatos.
6XP
Thoughts:
This session was a bit of a mixed bag for me. Though I think it was mostly a success. It was fun.
On the one hand, it felt good to return to the Caverns. I'm glad that ultimately it's the main event for most of the players. Thracia has so much shit in it, and it is the bulk of what I prepare for.
I do feel like the players wasted a bit of time though. It is their right to choose whichever direction they want to explore, but they really picked the worst way to get to the gates of death, and then insisted on bringing the donkey in. The donkey wasted a lot of their time. Bringing a mule into the dungeon is just not a good idea.
Regardless I am glad they entered the gates of death. It isn't that scary when you come with a priest, and for the most part it's a bit trite compared to the other things the dungeon has in store, but it's still creepy. One thing I realize though is Thracia has shit traps. They are so fucking boring. It's either spear trap, pit trap, or hidden crossbow. These traps have so little detail and just feel so tedious.
The players did seem to enjoy it though. Nouman reached out after and said he really enjoyed how the game played out and appreciated the faction play. It is gratifying to hear comments like this, and I do think on the whole my players are enjoying the campaign. It's why I'm not that bummed about how it went. The beauty of the campaign is looking at the bigger picture, especially with these brief sessions. One or two things may happen but they do impact the broader narrative, sometimes in grand ways.
I will give a shoutout to Al though. They were a great player. Good energy. This was their first session and they really just jumped in with no hesitation. They even read up on the notes for the campaign so they could get up to speed. I've never had a player do that. I feel spoiled!
I'm very happy with the group of players in the pool at the moment. Everyone's got a good vibe about them. This is genuinely something I don't take for granted when sourcing players via LFG posts on public discords.
You get what you put in as a player in this campaign and I do like for the most part players are happy to invest their time and energy to it.
One thing that I've come to accept is that Thracia, is very silly. It's well constructed and deeply thought through, but it's also got a silly charm of absolutely being a game space. It's traps just show up in random places and some of the encounter areas are a bit too close to each other to make sense. It's got a bunch of crazy shit in it. How any of this is supposed to make sense is not a consideration.
I would not call it a funhouse dungeon, but it has funhouse stairs. It's gamey.
I really like that about it. But sometimes the gaminess feels dry, like with the traps. Other times it's fucking awesome.