ADVENTURE 32: Anger Management
The Characters
Telok: Elf cleric of Obad-hai, divine disciple, level 13 CN
Jerry Springwater: Human Fighter-Paladin-Justicar, Level 13 LG
Jestyn: High Elf Wizard, Level 13 NG
Verrof: Earth Genasi Ranger-Foe Hunter, Level 11 LG, ECL 12
ADVENTURE 32: Anger Management: Swearing to put their differences aside, the characters made another trek into the dungeon, this time teleporting to the sight of Snaggletooths death. This time Anna Marie, wielding a rapier and dressed in Mithril chain, joined them. Here they went east, into a dark room with a sinkhole in it, and two more exits. Going southward, they entered a large, partially collapsed cavern where piercers fell from the ceiling and attacked them. In one side-room here, they found themselves at the bottom of a pit. Above, Jerrys Falcon could see that a passage lead to some stairs. Not going here yet, they went south from this room, to a place with much fungus, along with some yellow mold that they destroyed. Further down, their trapmaster disabled a simple wire and pit device, which guarded a dead-end room where a party of evil goblins made their lair.
Though the goblins tried diplomacy, the crusader PCs wouldnt deal with evil beings or worshippers of Orcus, and so a battle began. In the end the characters won without too much trouble, and even Anna Marie got to kill one of the goblins summoned monsters. The real trouble came when the characters decided to distribute their loot. Telok wanted to sell some of the items, but Verrof thought that maybe some party members might want to use them. A vicious argument started, as Verrof was very mad at Telok for being so greedy and rude. Telok threatened to kill Verrof with a spell. Verrof pulled out a mace. Enraged, he attacked the cleric, knocking him upside the head twice. Jerry tried pulling them away from each-other, while Jestyn trapped the duo in a wall of force. Soon they had both calmed down, but they afterwards refused to talk to one another, even swearing that they wouldnt fight together, or be in the same party. Jerry said that he wouldnt stay around if these two continued their shenanigans. Jestyn agreed to go wherever Jerry went. The party seemed about to break up. Then Anna Marie came up with an ideagive them both marks of Justice. Jerry decided to go back to town, and Jestyn made the teleport.
Before any magic was used, the party decided to talk this over, with Sartorious as a mediator. Verrof and Telok each spoke, stating their grievances against the other. Verrof was always angry with Telok: he hated the cleric for always hoarding treasures and treating the other PCs like objects, not people. Telok admitted that he was greedy, that he desired treasure and wealth, and that he lost his temper if he didnt get it. After a long conversation, both agreed to be given the Mark of Justice. Teloks made it so that whenever he felt greedy, he would immediately wish to be generous instead. Verrofs caused all of his anger to instead become calm. After this treatment, both seemed to get along a little better.
Later that day, Telok invited Mindy to come along and adventure with them. He bought her plenty of equipment, then introduced her to the others. They decided not to take her along yet, as she had no skills or training, and would quickly die down in the dungeon. Telok agreed to pay for her training as a bard if she wanted it. They went back in.
Exploring the rest of level 4A, they found a room filled with gigantic fungus, then an area populated by many basilisks, where dozens of stone statues stood around near a sinkhole. As the warriors slew the eleven basilisks of the cavern, the magic-users slowly freed all of the stone people, including a party of dwarves and an attractive elven wizardess, Trelinda. The dwarves told them about their search for gold, and how to get to the place where Navarre was buried. Supposedly, the nearby sinkhole lead straight to level 7a, and form there a staircase could be found that would lead to the large cavern where the fallen paladin was laid to rest. They also learned of level 6A, which lay beyond the staircase to the south-west, at the top of the pit. There lurked the Spider-Queen Aldeth, the sister of Akbeth who had stayed in the dungeon to watch over her cursed sibling, going insane from so many years underground. They decided to slay her, as she sounded very evil indeed.
So to 6A they went, using a newly bought Rope of Climbing to get up the pits side. Here they found several gigantic caverns, connected by small passages. In the first cavern was a huge black pyramid with no visible entrances. A strange inscription on the outside warned invaders from going in. They ignored it and headed west, into a large cave filled with spiderwebs (and spiders). The spiders were an easy fight, and the characters soon used magic to fly up to a web-bridge that spanned the upper reaches of the cave, connecting to smaller rooms. Up there, they were greeted by a room full of spiders and were rats. They guarded a powerful womanAldeth herself, who started invisible, and seemed to be able to exit this plane using magic. The sorceress was eventually joined by a strange giant spider-thing that had the face of a demon and could shoot rays from its eyes. After a long fight Jerry decapitated the wicked spider woman, at the same time as she Confused him. The battle won, the characters took a breather.
DM’S COMMENTS: The battle at the start could have ended the campaign. Thank the gods for Mark of Justice, a great means of therapy. As for the dungeon, we see that the characters are rapidly plowing through some of the higher levels (I always thought 6A was a bit on the light side), although they aren’t exacly rocketing up in levels (Anna Marie, on the other hand, is getting tons of experience). Soon they will probably go further down and experience some of the more hard core fights.