G101: The Head-Sized Ruby and the Hardening Ray

Date: 9/29/11
DM: OtspIII
PCs: Rover, Janus Stradivarian, Fifi, Prancine, Charlie Darrowkin, Wolfgang Zanzibar.

Summary

Several members of the Company of Crossed Swords decided to spend the evening together drinking at a local tavern, at which they met and ended up recruiting Fifi and Prancine, a pair of allied sword clerics. Some time into their drinking they were met by a strange sight: a very dirty and impoverished looking farmer wearing a silver and gold tiara (circlet?) who swaggered into the bar and started buying rounds of drinks for everyone. Charlie befriended the man and was informed of his story: his son had, while plowing the field, collapsed a sinkhole and fallen into some sort of strange pit, in which he had discovered a loot-heavy skeleton. The farmer also mentioned that at the bottom of the pit lay an opening to a larger structure below. Intrigued, the party escorted the blackout drunk farmer home and promised his son a share of whatever loot they might find in the dungeon.

On investigating the hole the party discovered that it was part of a man-made structure. What's more, they realized that gravity reversed itself half way through the room, making gaining access via a rope difficult. Luckily, Charlie's boots of Spider Climb made gaining access easy. Within the chamber the party found a square portal in the floor (roof?) and a door on one wall. They bashed apart the door, only to find dirt behind it.

Behind the other hole was found another similar room moving along to a octagonal room with a tiled floor. The floor-tiles were found to make an extremely intimidating clicking sound when pressed down, so the party theorized that stepping on the wrong one would trigger some sort of trap. Charlie walked along the room's roof to stretch a rope six feet over the floor for his party-mates to climb along. This more or less worked, although one of the clerics slipped and set off two more tiles, triggering no obvious negative effect.

The party explored several more rooms, finding a large mechanical contraption resembling some sort of death ray that pointed down a hall into a triangular room of mirrors with a circle in the center of the floor. They experimented with this for some time, leaving a pie, a glass sword, and a dagger in the room and firing the ray. All three items became incredibly hard, although the glass sword's magical enchantments seemed to be destroyed in the process.

The next room found seemed to be a gallery displaying rows and rows of treasure and magical items, but on closer examination the only non-illusions to be found within the room were the tables the fake treasure was displayed on. The party decided to attempt to use the Hardification Ray in the other room to turn an illusion of a ruby the size of a man's head into a real solid ruby, but the machine overheated and one of the quartz crystals making it up cracked.

Next the party found a group of 6 feral goblins with pale skin, gigantic bulging pure-white eyes, and batlike features sneaking up on them, which they quickly dispatched. In the room the goblins were nesting in one ring (later found to be non-magical) and two potions (ESP and Shrinking) were recovered. One final library room, entirely chewed up by the goblins, was found, and the party moved along to the next level via what seemed like a very large slow-inclined spiral staircase.

Eventually along the staircase the party was confronted by the very lonely animated skull of a wizard's apprentice embedded in a pillar. It begged the party to take it with them, but removing it from the pillar de-animated it, apparently permanently.

The next level of the dungeon led the party to a long hall with doors on either side. The party marched along straight, leading them right into another goblin nest, this time inhabited by 11 feral goblins. The group dispatched them, but not without losing Rover, the world's most adorable kobold. 10 ropes with 100 gold pieces each strung on them were recovered from the nest.

The night was getting late, so the party decided to try one more room, which seemed to be a great circular hall documenting the wizard who build the tower's deeds. Distracted by the embarrassingly self-congratulatory murals, Wolfgang nearly stumbled into the mass of a gelatinous cube. The cube quickly swallowed Charlie, but was cut apart by the rest of the party. Three jewels were recovered from the cube's core.

On the other side of the hall was found a door, which led to a room featuring a statue of the wizard with a hole in the floor. The hole led to a room full of 8 orcs, which the party led a stunning sneak attack against. The orcs were, sadly, too frozen in time to appreciate their effort, being posed in an action scene fighting off a shirtless barbarian type. The party decided to head back, but not before looting the quartz embedded in the wall so that they might be able to fix the machine from earlier in the dungeon. As soon as the quartz was removed all the orcs in the room re-animated and a great combat broke out. The orcs were quickly put down and the barbarian introduced himself as a great hero on a quest to rid the world of spellcasters. After a bit of friendly headbutting and lariating the barbarian decided to remove himself from the dungeon to reorient himself in this new world he found himself in. The party followed.

On the way out the party replaced the quartz in the hardening machine and fired it into the room with the ruby-table in it. Sadly, this merely disenchanted the table's illusion and did not grant the party a ruby the size of a man's head. The party left and returned home and sold their loot.

A few days after leaving Charlie found that his pie had lost its ultra-hardened state and Janus noted that his glass sword seemed recovered to its previous state of fragility and enchantment.

Losses and Loot

Rover, torn apart by feral cave goblins.

1000gp
1 Ring (non-magical): 250gp
3 Jewels: 600gp
2 Potions (ESP and Shrinking)

Total gp value:1850. Total xp: 2130.
Each character receives 308gp, 426xp.


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