Shadowdark Thracia 13
Players: Snubrash Zema Zafat Dina Bomb
Recap:
The party made their way to the caverns, taking the secret entrance hole down to the sacrificial chamber. They learned more of the cultist schism when they went to the funerary hall. Snubrash, observing the prayers of the Cleric, listens to the chant and takes it to memory. The chant keeps the dead in this chamber restful.
The party then moved eastwards, encountering some of the Immortal Cultists. The Immortal Cultists were on edge. The last time adventurers came in they broke into the holiest of holies. This group were to be reported to the Cleric. As the two cultists sought to escort the party to the new chapel, ZZ put them to sleep.
The party then met resistance from the Ceremonial Guards in front of the gates of death. They attempted to shove the guards aside but were not fast enough this time. One of the guards ran to call for aid. The other attacked the party. Bomb axed this one. Dina tried to fire her crossbow at the other one, but its string broke.
The party dashed in through the gates of death and entered the realm of Thanatos. However, as soon as they got through, the lights went out. The wight inside this room attacked Dina first, draining her life essence. She was luckily not too injured from the attack and was able to turn the wight, which fled to the corner of the room.
The party scrambled to get a torch lit. When they finally got one they found the wight cowering in the corner. Bomb threw a javelin at it, but it was totally unharmed. ZZ and Dina cast protection from evil on their martial allies, who gathered drapes and wrapped the wight in them. The party then proceeded to drag the wight towards the magical door and bash its head in.
They found the wight’s key.
Snubrash studied the Wight and better prepared himself to deal with undead.
Then they went north. Bomb tapped the floors with his pole and found the old pit trap.
In the room north, they studied the blobby black mass that was gesticulating by the wall. ZZ cast detect magic in the room and felt the presence of a magic item behind one of the walls.
The party opened the secret door and found 6 skeletons in a small chamber guarding a lockbox. Then all the other hidden doors burst open and 11 more skeletons jumped out. The party lured some of the skeletons into the pit trap. Then Dina turned the rest, destroying half their numbers (8 skeletons remain).
The party grabbed the lockbox and the silver pendants the skeletons were wearing and made it out of the dungeon by going down the rope Arete set last session and going back up to level 1 via level 2. On the way out they saw Grastic and offered him food. They mapped a bit more of that corner of level 2 and learned that the lizardmen have been abandoned by the Immortal King, who now draws human worshippers.
The party escaped the dungeon and found a skull shaped bottle (potion of levitate)
Total XP gained 5
Thoughts:
My favourite part of the session was watching the players deal with the Wight. They figured out it was immune to non-magic damage and beat it to death with a magic door. That was pretty great.
My least favourite part was them taking the long-winded path to get there, through ‘safe territory’. The west wing of level 1 is not very exciting anymore.
I think I am glad the players are mostly done with the Realm of Death. I can’t imagine they are that interested in exploring it further, given how much of a ball ache it’s been to get out. I’d be keen to see what leads they follow up on next week. I’ll include some fresh rumours as a reward for carousing this week.
The players did seem to really enjoy this one and I did ultimately have a good time. It just didn’t feel like that much got done and really only one new room was discovered really. Level 1 still has a lot going on that players don’t know about, but it’s mostly been charted. I’d be curious to see if the plan is to push into level 3 or if we are venturing out next session into the hex-crawl.
My gut tells me they’ll want a change of scenery and explore some of the overworld.