SESSION 312: The Lost Crypt pt. VI – I Swear this Dungeon Wants to Kill You.
Resolving encumbrance and the ant nest was a protracted affair.
Day 278 Continued (The Crypt): It was time to pack to loot. Well after another inordinate amount of time the loot was actually packed back into the alcove and warded with a magic alarm mouth. Then it was time to get back to the ant lair. More time was gobbled up trying to find the perfect action. Steve rooted through the mould chamber to determine if there was any treasure that would be destroyed if a fireball was used to nuke the deadly yellow mold. Seemed all to be junk underneath the saffron carpet in this oddly cool cavern. Ding-We launched a fireball. The flames consumed the yellow mould but super charged the also present small patch of brown mould. Ding-We immediately felt his bodily warmth being drained from him. He made a quick exit and reviewed his Who's Who log book, “Ugh brown mould makes cold and loves fire but hates cold”. Back in he went to discharge two cones of cold into the chamber (one was not enough).
Now the chamber was mould free.
The rest of the gang rolled in and once assembling into marching order they progressed to the next chamber.
Pushing their way through giant ant carcass laden passage Steve and Rhags came towards the next chamber opening. Rhags tossed his light stone into the sandy floored cavern, “Oh look giant ants that are not happy to see us.
We found the nest!”.
Warrior ants closed in on warrior hobos. They packed a nasty poisonous bite but they only got one chance with the Murder-tanks holding the line.
Chop. Chop.
Now the drones closed in, lots and lots of drones. “More than I can count”, hollered Steve. Chung-Li figured this was a good time for decisive action, “Step out I’m going to launch a fire ball”. “What of our treasure? We cannot go around slagging all our sweet sweet lucre!”, lamented the one-legged wizard. His pleading fell on deaf ears. Everyone else wanted to get things done they had barely survived the last couple of days and felt that much of it was from dithering. The elf pointed his wand into the chamber and things got hot. Too hot for the drones, they were all incinerated.
They rolled into the sandy chamber. It was felt that there was a queen and she would be somewhere most likely under the sand. That was true. She was an enormous thing and when the queen exploded from the ground her bulk created a cavity so large that it created a sinkhole like effect within melee distance. This caused a number of headaches. She also had a paralytic bite that incapacitated Biff. Someone noticed that Biff looked a little off, his defense seemed slow. The fight was dragging on until Ding-We was able to polymorph the giant ant into his preferred giant lagomorph, “Its hopping away get it!”. It was much easier to slaughter a largely defenceless rabbit.
Poor rabbit.
They were afforded no time to even clean their blades the ruckus had attracted four burrowing behemoths.
“Umber hulks. Don’t look at their eyes!” yelled Ding-We. They were surrounded. Biff was still paralyzed and BoB, Mason and Chung-Li were clearly imperilled. BoB was able to make an escape after getting clawed, open combat is a death sentence for our ninja-girl. Mason and Chung-Li clearly could not stand long against these beasts either. It did not help that everyone were fighting with averted gaze, making themselves easier targets and hitting the hulks notably more difficult. Ding-We decided to try to play the hulks own game. The tables needed to turn quick to avoid disaster. He cast confusion and it worked, buggering up three of them. Chung-Li at the same time webbed one then to slow it down for a few rounds. The tables had been turned. Mason and Chung-Li were able to fall back. This allowed Mason to remove Biff’s paralysis before he was murdered. Chung-Li brought out his bow and loosed two very lucky shots blinding a pair of the hulks, thus countering their confusing gaze. In its fury one of the beasts killed a pal leaving it open to be chopped down by Rhags and Steve. With one still webbed and the remaining blinded it was not long before Steve was rooting through their guts for loot. Those giant belly’s sure could hold a lot of stuff. A mountain of coin, a potion and a bunch of scrolls somehow preserved in digestive resistant tubes. They were not that great. One was cursed (burning another ward charge), another had lame divine spells and the other two were for protecting against lycanthropes (already had a stockpile of those).
Once more flush with more loot than they could carry, the gang deliberated on their next action for the umpteenth time today. Egress would be the course of action. The magic mule was summoned once more and buried in sacks of loot. A hobo probably would have received a bite for this but they were also underneath sack load. Back to base camp they slowly plodded.
It was not until they reached the hydra lair did the hobos have an encounter. A pair of cave bears were deeply involved in the hydra carcass, nice and stinky rotten. They let out some territorial growls and the larger of the two stood up showing its massive size. The mob gave as wide a berth as possible making their way back to the stairs. This satisfied the animals.
Not much further now. Through the medusa/ gargoyle lair they found themselves stepping once more into the wintery outdoors. The base camp seemed unmolested and guards quickly approached to help with the loot.
Steve had not said anything on the long walk but he was feeling not so good and needed a rest, he did look a little pale.
The night passed uneventfully.
The D-Team: Ding-We, Rhagnar, Steve, Chung-Li, Mason, Biff & BoB
ROLECALL
Hobo Steve the Lord (F10) 369987 xp +5% <480,001> CRT 1d30/V
Brain Damaged: reduced mental capacity (tough night on the town)
Rahgnar the Dwarven Superhero (D8) 270910 xp <280001> CRT 1d20/IV
Serious wound: permanent loss of an eye (-1 to missile fire)
Critical Wound: disembowelled less able to process poison (-1 penalty)
Missing thirteen teeth
Ding-We the Peg-Legged Wizard (W10) 552935 xp +10% <620001> CRT 1d10/I
Critical Wound: Left leg obliterated, runs at ½ rate (peg required)
The Henchmen
Biff Bartley the Half-Orc Blackguard (HO8) 121434 <MAX> +5% CRT 1d14/II
‘BOB’ the Deadly Shade (N7) 83631 <90000> +5% CRT 1d16/II
Mason the Lama of Yrrrg. (C7) 96764 <100001> CRT 1d10/III
Chung-Li the Myrmidon Warlock (E7) 134626 xp <250000> +10% CRT 1d8/II
RESERVES
Elapsed Campaign Time
743b days at beginning of session (Boris & Friends just outside of Liwil)
689a (Bunny Group Newville) Busy until 779
718d (Ding-We Gang Lake of Abominations/ Liwil)
Join us for session Three-Hundred-and-Thirteen when we ask the questions:
What will they find down the passage?
What’s wrong with Steve and Biff?
What about that stone box with no hinges nor seams?
Tale of the Tape
Is something building to something?
KILLS
Yellow moulds (many)
Mega-Brown-mould
Giant Warrior Ants (3)
Giant Drone Ants (40)
Giant Ant Queen
Umber Hulks (4)
LOOT
500 pp
20000 gp
Gems (4): 10, 1000, 10, 100 = 1120 gp
Potion of Cloud giant control
Scrolls (2) Pro from Lycanhropes
Divine Scroll: Cure Light, Snake Charm
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