Rappan Athuk #3 - The Graveyard
Ok, everyone congratulate the babies are their continuing improvement and allowing Dad to have a night a week away from home to be around other adults he doesn’t work with to enjoy a game he’s been playing since he was 12.
Now, if you tuned in to see if the party actually made it to the dungeon, well they almost did, but they chickened out. You’ll have to read on for more.
No Brian this session. Since he has the only rogue, and rogues are required for survival in this campaign, I allowed one of the other players to make a rogue character as a backup PC. Dale made a human monk/rogue and Aaron made a deep halfling favored soul/rogue. The group went with Aaron’s version for the bonus of emergency healing and the darkvision and other dwarf-like bonuses that deep halflings have.
His name was Mouse.
For speed’s sake we just assumed that Brian’s PC, Vars went off on his own for a short time and the party had already chatted with Mouse and joined them for the time being. Vars will pop back in sometime during the next session Brian attends.
A new rumor supplied by Mouse: An immense red dragon has been seen flying around of late. It is heard that he flies over the seas to return to his lair. All adventurers that seek him there are never seen again.
We started this session off with some minor and non-consequential role-playing before they group decided to move on out to find the dungeon and hopefully a large stash of money.
The group does not like this town at all and compares it to Gatlinburg or some other tourist trap. I compare it to something more like Hawaii; goods must travel a difficult route to get there, so extra money is required. Hawaii has a large swath of the Pacific Ocean and Lhend has a barely safe road in and out of the village plus plenty of wild lands surrounding it. The extra money is required for anything that has to travel the road.
For random encounters outside the dungeon I have someone in the group roll 1d6. A roll of 1 means an encounter of some kind occurs, a good or bad one (at my whim, because I’m there to have fun too).
In this case they saw a squad of a dozen soldiers with the king’s banner marching towards them along the same path they were on. Unfortunately the party failed multiple spot checks (you have to love the lower levels) and it wasn’t until the squad was right upon them when they noticed something was terribly wrong.
The king’s banner was torn and had some dried blood on it, and all of the soldiers were human skeletons.
The lead skeleton stepped forward and held his bony hand out, signaling to the party for them to hand something over.
The party took this as the universal symbol for “bribe”, so Sasha stepped forward and threw him a copper piece.
The lead skeleton pulled out his sword and the rest of the squad followed suit.
The two groups charged at each other.
Emanuel got the first kill with a smite evil at the lead skeleton, hoping that maybe the other skeletons would flee without their leader. He was wrong.
Sasha jumped towards the main squad of skeletons, alone. She was subsequently surrounded by eight skeletons.
The bonus hit points I gave the PC’s turned this FUBAR from a TPK to one of those fights where you hope someone else in the group is slower than you.
Of the 12 original skeletons only 3 were taken out before the group ran in three directions.
Eventually the two groups lost sight of each other as everyone ran back to town.
Back in town the group used most of their healing and headed back out of town.
Another 1 on a 1d6 random encounter roll later and they had 9 familiar-looking skeletons marching towards them.
Like before, one of them approached the lead skeleton that was holding his hand out, but this time Emanuel cast Mage Armor when Saver was walking forward.
Combat began anew.
This time around the party was smarter about sticking together improving their chances of survival. But a series of lucky rolls on the DM’s part dropped Sasha pretty handily (literally I rolled 20, 20, 19, 19, and 19 in that order).
The party still won the combat, but they were no longer in any kind of shape to fight another fight, so they headed back to town.
And yet they rolled another 1 on a 1d6 random encounter roll. But this time the DM was nice enough to have the squad of guards to be living guards in the service of the king.
So far, for random encounters the party has rolled three 1’s on three 1d6 rolls.
They are now very low on money, so they stayed in a single room, uncomfortably for the next two nights.
I went ahead and let the party level to level 3 since they were close enough in XP, and it would save time to have them go ahead and level now.
Once that was all completed they set about in search of Rappan Athuk for the billionth time. This time Sasha had Tracking as a feat, making finding the road so much easier.
But it didn’t mean that they were able to avoid random encounter rolls.
They made it all the way to the forest before they rolled that 1 and a pair of man-sized, green-skinned trolls dropped out of the trees and ripped into them with their poisoned claws.
Wow that Con damage poison sure does scare PC’s, and for good reason.
In spite of that, the party was able to kill one troll and make the other run away.
After one little fight, well not that little, the party had to find shelter and hole up for a few days. They couldn’t go back to town because they had no money, and were sick of running back to town like the low levels of Dragon Warrior I.
So Sasha was able to follow the party’s own week-old tracks back to the ruined tower they stumbled upon last session.
And of course they rolled another random encounter and killed a couple of angry, red-eyed fiendish dire badgers living in the front yard of the tower.
They cowered in that place for two full days before they left.
Now while they were inside they heard a bunch of canines growling outside, then a bunch of yelping and more growling, then less yelping and growling, and then nothing.
That was the result of yet more random encounter rolls while they were hiding in the tower, but the tower itself protected them.
But it could protect the wolves from … well other wolves, skeletal wolves to be exact.
That morning the party opened the door of the tower, they saw a horrific sight torn flesh and fur, blood everywhere, made worse by the rains overnight.
And then there were the 8 skeletal wolves just waiting for them.
After a couple of rounds of this fight, we just called it a wash as the party was going to win, it was just a matter time. They set up a conga-line-of-death and killed each wolf, one at a time. So I just rolled some damage and the party healed it and we moved along.
But they decided to go ahead and hole up for another couple of days to shrug off the damage and heal up some of that Con poison damage.
No more random encounters for those two days. Their luck had changed, for now.
With some difficulty, thanks to the rain ruining their trail, the party was able to get back on the main trail and eventually they found themselves going up a hill to what they knew was going to be the dungeon of Rappan Athuk, the dungeon of graves.
That 50gp Emanuel spent on that map was possibly the best money they dropped in the village. The map was actually correct.
The DM then read the flavor text:
“You crest the hill, and the complex finally comes into view. In stark contrast to the lush greenery of the hills lies a large sunken graveyard, laid out in the shape of a cross. Rather than towering above the ground, the graves have settled into depression, and the main mausoleum, a building of strange green stone, rests in the deepest depression, some 40 feet below the ground on which you now stand. At the other end of the grave-filled hollow stand what appears to be a stone well. There are no gravestones near it. The normal sounds of wildlife are gone, and large carrion birds circle overhead. An ominous silence rests about the place. Each of you knows in your heart that you have found the legendary dungeon of Rappan Athuk. And though none of you dares speak it, you wonder if you will live to return to the warmth of hearth and home.”
The light fog over the area did nothing to obscure their vision, but it did seem to play tricks with their eyes, seeing movement out of the corners of their eyes.
Hundreds of headstones in clusters were spread haphazardly about the place.
The party stopped to investigate any headstones they came across as they journeyed to the center of the cross; finding either no one they had heard of or the stones were too worn or defiled to be legible.
It was probably best that no one in the party had a shovel or they would have spent time digging up graves.
Saver, using a Detect Magic spell, swept the area with it on this slow journey, finding that only the mausoleum spoken of in the flavor had anything magical on it. Specifically it was the eight greenstone gargoyle-looking statues that sat atop the mausoleum.
They gave that mausoleum plenty of breathing room and never stepped any closer than 40’ to the building, just knowing that those gargoyle things were out to get them.
Dale: “I have prodigious faith that we would do something stupid to trip them all off.”
They had hoping for some easy score and grab a bunch of money then head back to town. That concept is best described as delusional.
Thanks to some good spot checks they made note of some small holes in the ground that they saw rats fleeing into, a large statue of some great dwarven warrior, and a cluster of fresh dug graves.
They started with the fresh dug graves. On the tombstones were names of heroes of their own time, except for one open grave with a gravestone engraved with the name “Saver Die” (Dale’s PC’s name).
That particular grave caught their attention, as it should. First Mouse gave a search of it and found nothing, then curiosity got the best of Saver and they tied a rope to him and lowered him in to the fresh dug earth so he could search for himself.
Other than a horribly creepy feeling, he found nothing and they pulled him out.
Next were the rat holes. Being 3’ wide only Mouse could easily move around in the holes. So they tied that 50’ long rope to him and let him scurry around in them.
His first attempt to navigate the holes brought him up out of another nearby hole.
His second attempt led him downwards quite a bit, but he had to abandon it when the rope ran out.
His third and fourth attempts ended in him coming out of a hole in another section of the graveyard, but not that far away.
The party was quite creeped out at this point, and everything they encountered reeked of a trap, so they turned around and left the place with their tails between their legs.
So much for adventurers being brave souls.
They headed back to town, hoping to have yet another random encounter, but luck had turned on them again, and they made it back to town after dusk.
They were exhausted, but the inn was full, and they didn’t have the money to start a bidding war for the rooms. So they were left with the dreaded common rooms, which were effectively a breeding ground for mold and disease. They could barely afford the 1gp per person for the place, and had no other safe option.
When the morning came, they stocked up on rations and headed back out to the wilderness, hoping for a random encounter that might bring them money and maybe something that will help them in the dungeon.
In the forest they got a something they wished for, but you what they say about that.
Along the path they heard some growling as a pair of glowing red-eyed fiendish dire wolves moved to block their path, and combat began.
Round 1:
Saver casts Ray of Enfeeblement, draining 7 points of strength from wolf #1.
Emanuel casts Mage Armor on himself.
Wolf #1 charges Saver and smites Saver, doing 11 points of damage.
Sasha turns to wolf #1 and crits it with a power attack, dealing 51 points of damage. That doesn’t kill it, but it’s limping.
Mouse is able to sneak attack wolf #1 for 10 points of damage but it still doesn’t drop.
Now had the party dropped the first fiendish dire wolf, the second would have ran for the hills, but they didn’t, so it didn’t.
Wolf #2 charges Sasha with a smite attack, and crits her. She takes 47 points of damage, leaving her at -8 hit points.
Round 2:
Emanuel hits the wolf with paltry a 5 points of damage, but it only had 3 hit points. One wolf down.
Saver hits wolf #2 with a Ray of Enfeeblement and drains 6 points of strength from it.
Mouse casts Cure Light Wounds on Sasha, bringing her up to -2 hp.
The wolf misses Emanuel, barely. The strength loss saved him there.
Round 3:
Emanuel attempts to smite the wolf, but misses.
Saver tries to cast Command at the wolf to fall, but Saver fails the spell resistance check. Dale fails to realize that the Command spell won’t work on the wolf.
The wolf tears into Emanuel, doing 15 points of damage and trips him.
Round 4:
Emanuel attack from on the ground, rather than stand and give an attack of opportunity, but he misses.
Mouse tries to maneuvers to get flanking, but his 20’ movement prevents that. He does hit the wolf, but only for 2 points of damage.
Saver tries to Command the wolf to fall again.
The wolf leaves Emanuel on the ground and instead attacks and trips Mouse, dealing 8 points of damage to him as well.
Round 5:
Emanuel stands up triggering an attack of opportunity. The wolf barely misses.
Saver as able to reach Sasha and casts Cure Light Wounds on her, bringing her to 2hp.
Mouse stands up since the wolf has already used its attack of opportunity. He then attacks the wolf but misses.
The wolf hit Emanuel for another 15 points of damage, dropping him to negatives.
Round 6:
Mouse makes a run for it. His Mobility feat saves his life when the wolf gets a free attack.
Sasha stands up and moves Emanuel’s side, hoping to grab him next round and run with him.
Saver tries to cast Command for the third and final time, failing to break through the spell resistance for the third time as well.
The wolf bites at Sasha, but a natural 1 misses.
Round 7:
Sasha runs for it, provoking an attack of opportunity that brings her from +2hp to -10hp. Goodbye Sasha. Eh, even Joy admits that Sasha should have bought the farm on more than one occasion this session.
Saver then casts Obscuring Mist and runs for it.
Wolf #2 has a couple of snacks.
The combat is over with 50% casualties on both sides, but the wolves won.
The party has also lost some magical bracers, their PC with tracking, and their hand drawn map to Rappan Athuk.
Next week Joy will be bringing a fighter/ranger.
Aaron will probably use Mouse as his main PC.
And Justin might be returning. I’ve no clue what he’ll be using.
Now, if you tuned in to see if the party actually made it to the dungeon, well they almost did, but they chickened out. You’ll have to read on for more.
No Brian this session. Since he has the only rogue, and rogues are required for survival in this campaign, I allowed one of the other players to make a rogue character as a backup PC. Dale made a human monk/rogue and Aaron made a deep halfling favored soul/rogue. The group went with Aaron’s version for the bonus of emergency healing and the darkvision and other dwarf-like bonuses that deep halflings have.
His name was Mouse.
For speed’s sake we just assumed that Brian’s PC, Vars went off on his own for a short time and the party had already chatted with Mouse and joined them for the time being. Vars will pop back in sometime during the next session Brian attends.
A new rumor supplied by Mouse: An immense red dragon has been seen flying around of late. It is heard that he flies over the seas to return to his lair. All adventurers that seek him there are never seen again.
We started this session off with some minor and non-consequential role-playing before they group decided to move on out to find the dungeon and hopefully a large stash of money.
The group does not like this town at all and compares it to Gatlinburg or some other tourist trap. I compare it to something more like Hawaii; goods must travel a difficult route to get there, so extra money is required. Hawaii has a large swath of the Pacific Ocean and Lhend has a barely safe road in and out of the village plus plenty of wild lands surrounding it. The extra money is required for anything that has to travel the road.
For random encounters outside the dungeon I have someone in the group roll 1d6. A roll of 1 means an encounter of some kind occurs, a good or bad one (at my whim, because I’m there to have fun too).
In this case they saw a squad of a dozen soldiers with the king’s banner marching towards them along the same path they were on. Unfortunately the party failed multiple spot checks (you have to love the lower levels) and it wasn’t until the squad was right upon them when they noticed something was terribly wrong.
The king’s banner was torn and had some dried blood on it, and all of the soldiers were human skeletons.
The lead skeleton stepped forward and held his bony hand out, signaling to the party for them to hand something over.
The party took this as the universal symbol for “bribe”, so Sasha stepped forward and threw him a copper piece.
The lead skeleton pulled out his sword and the rest of the squad followed suit.
The two groups charged at each other.
Emanuel got the first kill with a smite evil at the lead skeleton, hoping that maybe the other skeletons would flee without their leader. He was wrong.
Sasha jumped towards the main squad of skeletons, alone. She was subsequently surrounded by eight skeletons.
The bonus hit points I gave the PC’s turned this FUBAR from a TPK to one of those fights where you hope someone else in the group is slower than you.
Of the 12 original skeletons only 3 were taken out before the group ran in three directions.
Eventually the two groups lost sight of each other as everyone ran back to town.
Back in town the group used most of their healing and headed back out of town.
Another 1 on a 1d6 random encounter roll later and they had 9 familiar-looking skeletons marching towards them.
Like before, one of them approached the lead skeleton that was holding his hand out, but this time Emanuel cast Mage Armor when Saver was walking forward.
Combat began anew.
This time around the party was smarter about sticking together improving their chances of survival. But a series of lucky rolls on the DM’s part dropped Sasha pretty handily (literally I rolled 20, 20, 19, 19, and 19 in that order).
The party still won the combat, but they were no longer in any kind of shape to fight another fight, so they headed back to town.
And yet they rolled another 1 on a 1d6 random encounter roll. But this time the DM was nice enough to have the squad of guards to be living guards in the service of the king.
So far, for random encounters the party has rolled three 1’s on three 1d6 rolls.
They are now very low on money, so they stayed in a single room, uncomfortably for the next two nights.
I went ahead and let the party level to level 3 since they were close enough in XP, and it would save time to have them go ahead and level now.
Once that was all completed they set about in search of Rappan Athuk for the billionth time. This time Sasha had Tracking as a feat, making finding the road so much easier.
But it didn’t mean that they were able to avoid random encounter rolls.
They made it all the way to the forest before they rolled that 1 and a pair of man-sized, green-skinned trolls dropped out of the trees and ripped into them with their poisoned claws.
Wow that Con damage poison sure does scare PC’s, and for good reason.
In spite of that, the party was able to kill one troll and make the other run away.
After one little fight, well not that little, the party had to find shelter and hole up for a few days. They couldn’t go back to town because they had no money, and were sick of running back to town like the low levels of Dragon Warrior I.
So Sasha was able to follow the party’s own week-old tracks back to the ruined tower they stumbled upon last session.
And of course they rolled another random encounter and killed a couple of angry, red-eyed fiendish dire badgers living in the front yard of the tower.
They cowered in that place for two full days before they left.
Now while they were inside they heard a bunch of canines growling outside, then a bunch of yelping and more growling, then less yelping and growling, and then nothing.
That was the result of yet more random encounter rolls while they were hiding in the tower, but the tower itself protected them.
But it could protect the wolves from … well other wolves, skeletal wolves to be exact.
That morning the party opened the door of the tower, they saw a horrific sight torn flesh and fur, blood everywhere, made worse by the rains overnight.
And then there were the 8 skeletal wolves just waiting for them.
After a couple of rounds of this fight, we just called it a wash as the party was going to win, it was just a matter time. They set up a conga-line-of-death and killed each wolf, one at a time. So I just rolled some damage and the party healed it and we moved along.
But they decided to go ahead and hole up for another couple of days to shrug off the damage and heal up some of that Con poison damage.
No more random encounters for those two days. Their luck had changed, for now.
With some difficulty, thanks to the rain ruining their trail, the party was able to get back on the main trail and eventually they found themselves going up a hill to what they knew was going to be the dungeon of Rappan Athuk, the dungeon of graves.
That 50gp Emanuel spent on that map was possibly the best money they dropped in the village. The map was actually correct.
The DM then read the flavor text:
“You crest the hill, and the complex finally comes into view. In stark contrast to the lush greenery of the hills lies a large sunken graveyard, laid out in the shape of a cross. Rather than towering above the ground, the graves have settled into depression, and the main mausoleum, a building of strange green stone, rests in the deepest depression, some 40 feet below the ground on which you now stand. At the other end of the grave-filled hollow stand what appears to be a stone well. There are no gravestones near it. The normal sounds of wildlife are gone, and large carrion birds circle overhead. An ominous silence rests about the place. Each of you knows in your heart that you have found the legendary dungeon of Rappan Athuk. And though none of you dares speak it, you wonder if you will live to return to the warmth of hearth and home.”
The light fog over the area did nothing to obscure their vision, but it did seem to play tricks with their eyes, seeing movement out of the corners of their eyes.
Hundreds of headstones in clusters were spread haphazardly about the place.
The party stopped to investigate any headstones they came across as they journeyed to the center of the cross; finding either no one they had heard of or the stones were too worn or defiled to be legible.
It was probably best that no one in the party had a shovel or they would have spent time digging up graves.
Saver, using a Detect Magic spell, swept the area with it on this slow journey, finding that only the mausoleum spoken of in the flavor had anything magical on it. Specifically it was the eight greenstone gargoyle-looking statues that sat atop the mausoleum.
They gave that mausoleum plenty of breathing room and never stepped any closer than 40’ to the building, just knowing that those gargoyle things were out to get them.
Dale: “I have prodigious faith that we would do something stupid to trip them all off.”
They had hoping for some easy score and grab a bunch of money then head back to town. That concept is best described as delusional.
Thanks to some good spot checks they made note of some small holes in the ground that they saw rats fleeing into, a large statue of some great dwarven warrior, and a cluster of fresh dug graves.
They started with the fresh dug graves. On the tombstones were names of heroes of their own time, except for one open grave with a gravestone engraved with the name “Saver Die” (Dale’s PC’s name).
That particular grave caught their attention, as it should. First Mouse gave a search of it and found nothing, then curiosity got the best of Saver and they tied a rope to him and lowered him in to the fresh dug earth so he could search for himself.
Other than a horribly creepy feeling, he found nothing and they pulled him out.
Next were the rat holes. Being 3’ wide only Mouse could easily move around in the holes. So they tied that 50’ long rope to him and let him scurry around in them.
His first attempt to navigate the holes brought him up out of another nearby hole.
His second attempt led him downwards quite a bit, but he had to abandon it when the rope ran out.
His third and fourth attempts ended in him coming out of a hole in another section of the graveyard, but not that far away.
The party was quite creeped out at this point, and everything they encountered reeked of a trap, so they turned around and left the place with their tails between their legs.
So much for adventurers being brave souls.
They headed back to town, hoping to have yet another random encounter, but luck had turned on them again, and they made it back to town after dusk.
They were exhausted, but the inn was full, and they didn’t have the money to start a bidding war for the rooms. So they were left with the dreaded common rooms, which were effectively a breeding ground for mold and disease. They could barely afford the 1gp per person for the place, and had no other safe option.
When the morning came, they stocked up on rations and headed back out to the wilderness, hoping for a random encounter that might bring them money and maybe something that will help them in the dungeon.
In the forest they got a something they wished for, but you what they say about that.
Along the path they heard some growling as a pair of glowing red-eyed fiendish dire wolves moved to block their path, and combat began.
Round 1:
Saver casts Ray of Enfeeblement, draining 7 points of strength from wolf #1.
Emanuel casts Mage Armor on himself.
Wolf #1 charges Saver and smites Saver, doing 11 points of damage.
Sasha turns to wolf #1 and crits it with a power attack, dealing 51 points of damage. That doesn’t kill it, but it’s limping.
Mouse is able to sneak attack wolf #1 for 10 points of damage but it still doesn’t drop.
Now had the party dropped the first fiendish dire wolf, the second would have ran for the hills, but they didn’t, so it didn’t.
Wolf #2 charges Sasha with a smite attack, and crits her. She takes 47 points of damage, leaving her at -8 hit points.
Round 2:
Emanuel hits the wolf with paltry a 5 points of damage, but it only had 3 hit points. One wolf down.
Saver hits wolf #2 with a Ray of Enfeeblement and drains 6 points of strength from it.
Mouse casts Cure Light Wounds on Sasha, bringing her up to -2 hp.
The wolf misses Emanuel, barely. The strength loss saved him there.
Round 3:
Emanuel attempts to smite the wolf, but misses.
Saver tries to cast Command at the wolf to fall, but Saver fails the spell resistance check. Dale fails to realize that the Command spell won’t work on the wolf.
The wolf tears into Emanuel, doing 15 points of damage and trips him.
Round 4:
Emanuel attack from on the ground, rather than stand and give an attack of opportunity, but he misses.
Mouse tries to maneuvers to get flanking, but his 20’ movement prevents that. He does hit the wolf, but only for 2 points of damage.
Saver tries to Command the wolf to fall again.
The wolf leaves Emanuel on the ground and instead attacks and trips Mouse, dealing 8 points of damage to him as well.
Round 5:
Emanuel stands up triggering an attack of opportunity. The wolf barely misses.
Saver as able to reach Sasha and casts Cure Light Wounds on her, bringing her to 2hp.
Mouse stands up since the wolf has already used its attack of opportunity. He then attacks the wolf but misses.
The wolf hit Emanuel for another 15 points of damage, dropping him to negatives.
Round 6:
Mouse makes a run for it. His Mobility feat saves his life when the wolf gets a free attack.
Sasha stands up and moves Emanuel’s side, hoping to grab him next round and run with him.
Saver tries to cast Command for the third and final time, failing to break through the spell resistance for the third time as well.
The wolf bites at Sasha, but a natural 1 misses.
Round 7:
Sasha runs for it, provoking an attack of opportunity that brings her from +2hp to -10hp. Goodbye Sasha. Eh, even Joy admits that Sasha should have bought the farm on more than one occasion this session.
Saver then casts Obscuring Mist and runs for it.
Wolf #2 has a couple of snacks.
The combat is over with 50% casualties on both sides, but the wolves won.
The party has also lost some magical bracers, their PC with tracking, and their hand drawn map to Rappan Athuk.
Next week Joy will be bringing a fighter/ranger.
Aaron will probably use Mouse as his main PC.
And Justin might be returning. I’ve no clue what he’ll be using.
posted by BlueBlackRed at 10:18 PM
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