In the last few week's there's been two more delves into the Vats of Mazarin. This post would be quite lengthy if I went into as much detail as I usually do, so I'll try to keep it brief.
Zak was finally able to join in with his attack poodle for both sessions and we had another new player in sessions 6, Cole, who played a Chaotic clown. Otherwise Brother Hoyle, Squallia,and Abaddor returned both nights.
By the end of session 6, the party has found just about everything of interest in the first level of the dungeon as well as the Observatory sub level. While no characters died, all of the party's henchmen and hirelings were killed, bludgeoned to death by giant crystal statues, zombie by cursed wine jugs, ripped apart by a tentacled horror that was summoned from a lower level by the magic-users in the white robes, or killed as the result of a crazy old mole man's demented wish in a magical fountain. Some of them were pretty close to meeting their ends (Blicxa being forced to cut off his hand, which was bitten by the cursed zombie).
Speaking of the magic-users in white robes. The group discovered they are part of a rival school to Mazarin's and have taken over the dungeon (or are trying to) in the hopes of stealing his secrets.
The last important thing of note is that a mirror was discovered that could be used as a gate to, what the party believes is, the red planet, blistering red sands rolling around on the other side. They recovered the mirror and set it up in their room at the in for later inspection.
"A doomed man needs no such elegant footwear." - Jack Vance, Eyes of the Overworld
Showing posts with label ConstantCon. Show all posts
Showing posts with label ConstantCon. Show all posts
Wednesday, September 14, 2011
Saturday, August 20, 2011
Vats of Mazarin - Session #3
Medium: Google+ Hangouts
System: B/X D&D
Characters:
Last night was a pretty tiny session, only two players, during which two separate dungeon expositions. I'm typically not a fan of smaller games, and I think that showed in my DMing ability last night. Reguardless, I still had an enjoyable time and the session added a heavy dose of depth to the game which will hopefully be built upon more in the future.
In the first delve into the Vats of Mazarin, Squalia, Thangor, Murd, and Leoden swung north from the bridge over the steaming pit into the tunnels of the Mole Men. The exposition proved deadly for 7 Mole Men and awarded the party 45 gold bars, worth 10 gold a piece. This should prove interesting to see how it affects the previous adventuring party's tentative alliance with the Mole Men, which will likely be dependent on whether or not Murd was recognized. Before shimmying back up the rope to the bridge, Murd was spotted by Thangor's infravision walking back into the Mole Men's tunnels with a small iron chest of gold bars and star-speckled snakes. Questioned after his return, Murd's only answer was, "Gettin' rid of them snakes."
Before the second exposition, the group took a couple of days to acquire two new retainers and a hireling. Actually, Melot and Belgon, two magic-users, hired the party to safely take them into the dungeon in search of artifacts of the Snake Men, of which little reliable information is known. These magic-users are in the employment of a man named Lord Garond or, as he was more commonly refereed to, the Archeologist. They agreed to give the party 10gp each up front plus an addition 100gp per downwards staircase found and an additional 1000gp per each artifact of the Snake Men collected. In addition to these two magic-user, the party also hired Mike the torchbearer.
Heading back into the Vats of Mazarin, Murd unknowing set off a newly placed trip-wire at the back of the cave entrance just before the bridge, presumably set by the Mole Men. A canister of magical gas dropped from the ceiling, causing the Murd, Leoden, Mike and Meltot to go into a berserk rage. After a minute of in-fighting, Murd has killed Leoden and Mike had ended Belgon, at which point the two survivors made their way towards the rest of party, who has fled out of the cave mouth. Luckily, Thangor managed to down them, (in addition to Belgon) with a well-placed sleep spell.
Thangor and Squalia tied up their sleeping companions and searched the bodies of their fallen comrades. Leoden possessed nothing of note, but Meltot wore a jade snake medallion around his neck and carried the floating disk spell in his spell book. The two adventurers then decided to check and see if Belgon wore a similar amulet: he did indeed. Now believing the two to belong to some sort of snake-worshiping cult, the party looked through Belgon's spells book and checked Meltot's body more carefully. In Belgon's spells book the party found map and drawing of an alter with two snake statues labeled the Caverns of Lycin. Upon Meltot's ankle, they found a green tattoo of an eye writhed in the red tongue of a serpent; such a mark could not be round on Belgon. After being woken up, Belgon explained, under threat of torture, that the Cavers of Lycin was the last location given to him to explore by the Archeologist, but claimed not to understand the meaning of the tattoo possessed by his late partner.
After the interrogation, the party lined up the bodies next to those of the previously fallen adventurers and ventured back into the complex. They made their way through an abandoned alchemy laboratory, down into the second level of the dungeon, and into the room of the legendary Vats. After opening up one of the nine iron hatches sealing each of the vats, the party decided not to mess the substances, believing them to be the source of the canisters' power. At that point, however, Thangar felt a dagger pierce his back before keeling over dead. After violently dealing with the thief, an npc inhabiting the dungeon's second level, the party retreated out of the complex.
They then decided to get Thangar resurrected by the high priest of Kelin, leaving Thangar, Squalia, and even Murd impoverished, and journeyed three days west to the city of Parithian. Thangar will now forever be haunted by nightmares.
System: B/X D&D
Characters:
- Squolia, thief 1 (Anthony)
- Thangor, dwarf magic-user 2 (Joe; died, but resurrected)
- Murd, fighter 1 (retainer)
Leoden, fighter 1 (hireling)Meltot, magic-users 1 (retainer)- Belgon, magic-user 1 (retainer)
- Mike, normal man (hireling)
Last night was a pretty tiny session, only two players, during which two separate dungeon expositions. I'm typically not a fan of smaller games, and I think that showed in my DMing ability last night. Reguardless, I still had an enjoyable time and the session added a heavy dose of depth to the game which will hopefully be built upon more in the future.
In the first delve into the Vats of Mazarin, Squalia, Thangor, Murd, and Leoden swung north from the bridge over the steaming pit into the tunnels of the Mole Men. The exposition proved deadly for 7 Mole Men and awarded the party 45 gold bars, worth 10 gold a piece. This should prove interesting to see how it affects the previous adventuring party's tentative alliance with the Mole Men, which will likely be dependent on whether or not Murd was recognized. Before shimmying back up the rope to the bridge, Murd was spotted by Thangor's infravision walking back into the Mole Men's tunnels with a small iron chest of gold bars and star-speckled snakes. Questioned after his return, Murd's only answer was, "Gettin' rid of them snakes."
Before the second exposition, the group took a couple of days to acquire two new retainers and a hireling. Actually, Melot and Belgon, two magic-users, hired the party to safely take them into the dungeon in search of artifacts of the Snake Men, of which little reliable information is known. These magic-users are in the employment of a man named Lord Garond or, as he was more commonly refereed to, the Archeologist. They agreed to give the party 10gp each up front plus an addition 100gp per downwards staircase found and an additional 1000gp per each artifact of the Snake Men collected. In addition to these two magic-user, the party also hired Mike the torchbearer.
Heading back into the Vats of Mazarin, Murd unknowing set off a newly placed trip-wire at the back of the cave entrance just before the bridge, presumably set by the Mole Men. A canister of magical gas dropped from the ceiling, causing the Murd, Leoden, Mike and Meltot to go into a berserk rage. After a minute of in-fighting, Murd has killed Leoden and Mike had ended Belgon, at which point the two survivors made their way towards the rest of party, who has fled out of the cave mouth. Luckily, Thangor managed to down them, (in addition to Belgon) with a well-placed sleep spell.
Thangor and Squalia tied up their sleeping companions and searched the bodies of their fallen comrades. Leoden possessed nothing of note, but Meltot wore a jade snake medallion around his neck and carried the floating disk spell in his spell book. The two adventurers then decided to check and see if Belgon wore a similar amulet: he did indeed. Now believing the two to belong to some sort of snake-worshiping cult, the party looked through Belgon's spells book and checked Meltot's body more carefully. In Belgon's spells book the party found map and drawing of an alter with two snake statues labeled the Caverns of Lycin. Upon Meltot's ankle, they found a green tattoo of an eye writhed in the red tongue of a serpent; such a mark could not be round on Belgon. After being woken up, Belgon explained, under threat of torture, that the Cavers of Lycin was the last location given to him to explore by the Archeologist, but claimed not to understand the meaning of the tattoo possessed by his late partner.
After the interrogation, the party lined up the bodies next to those of the previously fallen adventurers and ventured back into the complex. They made their way through an abandoned alchemy laboratory, down into the second level of the dungeon, and into the room of the legendary Vats. After opening up one of the nine iron hatches sealing each of the vats, the party decided not to mess the substances, believing them to be the source of the canisters' power. At that point, however, Thangar felt a dagger pierce his back before keeling over dead. After violently dealing with the thief, an npc inhabiting the dungeon's second level, the party retreated out of the complex.
They then decided to get Thangar resurrected by the high priest of Kelin, leaving Thangar, Squalia, and even Murd impoverished, and journeyed three days west to the city of Parithian. Thangar will now forever be haunted by nightmares.
Wednesday, August 10, 2011
Vats if Mazarin - Session #1
Medium: Google+ Hangouts
System: B/X D&D
Characters:
For the first session, I thought we'd begin with a good, old fashioned dungeon delve. Brother Hoyle, an acolyte of Turnia, the "Lady Luck," has discovered some religious documents related to an abandoned complex known as the Vats of Mazarin.
Thus the company made it west from Tytheron, a small mining village, through the jungles of Avalion to the Vats of Mazarin. The first things the party noticed was that opening to the complex spewed steam and there was some sort of metal spike protruding from the mountain, about 200 ft upwards and slightly off to the left of the opening.
In their journey, the group discovered a rivalry between the Mole Men and Berserkers in the severance; a humanoid beetle; a cursed fountain filled with treasure and sculpted in form of Zenith, god of the stars and planets; a four-armed white ape chained to the back wall of a room with descending stairs; an iron bucket filled with blueish acid and a book titled Gates to Azeron in a broom closet turned bedroom, which may have been recently or is currently being used by some denizen of the megadungeon.
We only went through a handfull rooms, 11 to be exact, but the group managed to accumulate a total of 5178 experience points, a sack filled with 600 gold coins, an unidentified potion (purple), an unidentified magic ring (silver), and a few pieces of jewelry, including a diamond studded monocle now worn by Groffer.
Isac the theif was gored through by a humanoid fire beetle (simulaneous combat resulted in Samuel also running the beetle through with his pole arm). Samuel Axelord then met his end - although after he and Groffer freed the white ape from captivity - in a battle with three berserkers. Finally, after getting a little too greedy, Aleta's skin was pulled into and her skin dissolved by the cursed fountain, resulting in her death.
All three bodies are now piled outside the megadungeon complex.
System: B/X D&D
Characters:
- Brother Hoyle, cleric 1 of Turia, goddess of luck, fortune, and coincidence (Matt)
Samuel Axelord, fighter 1(Jake)- Abbador, magic-user 1 (Will/Coffee)
Isac, thief 1(Anthony)- Groffer, dwarf 1 (also Anthony)
Aleta, cleric 1 of Francesca , goddess of love, marriage, and wealth 1( also Jake; poor Jake)
For the first session, I thought we'd begin with a good, old fashioned dungeon delve. Brother Hoyle, an acolyte of Turnia, the "Lady Luck," has discovered some religious documents related to an abandoned complex known as the Vats of Mazarin.
Thus the company made it west from Tytheron, a small mining village, through the jungles of Avalion to the Vats of Mazarin. The first things the party noticed was that opening to the complex spewed steam and there was some sort of metal spike protruding from the mountain, about 200 ft upwards and slightly off to the left of the opening.
In their journey, the group discovered a rivalry between the Mole Men and Berserkers in the severance; a humanoid beetle; a cursed fountain filled with treasure and sculpted in form of Zenith, god of the stars and planets; a four-armed white ape chained to the back wall of a room with descending stairs; an iron bucket filled with blueish acid and a book titled Gates to Azeron in a broom closet turned bedroom, which may have been recently or is currently being used by some denizen of the megadungeon.
We only went through a handfull rooms, 11 to be exact, but the group managed to accumulate a total of 5178 experience points, a sack filled with 600 gold coins, an unidentified potion (purple), an unidentified magic ring (silver), and a few pieces of jewelry, including a diamond studded monocle now worn by Groffer.
Isac the theif was gored through by a humanoid fire beetle (simulaneous combat resulted in Samuel also running the beetle through with his pole arm). Samuel Axelord then met his end - although after he and Groffer freed the white ape from captivity - in a battle with three berserkers. Finally, after getting a little too greedy, Aleta's skin was pulled into and her skin dissolved by the cursed fountain, resulting in her death.
All three bodies are now piled outside the megadungeon complex.
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