Date: May 23, 2012
PCs: Ja'Tubis, "Cut" Coutelain, Roland (Lord Zanzibar), Audrey Carcassonne, Blackjack Dusseldorf
DM: Quendalon
Summary
Suffering from a relative shortage of numbers, the party decides to spend the session exploring the first level and second of the Chateau in an attempt to check up on a few of the remaining unexplored sectors of the company maps. Travel is slightly delayed by the arrival of Cut's War-Pony, a "stout" creature specially delivered to him from the south. Cut is exceptionally pleased with the merchant's job in delivering the pony and pays the merchant's surprise fees gladly, throwing in a little tip of his own on top of it.
The party greets the orcs briefly and enters the dungeon through Alienor's Tower. Exploring the yet-unvisited halls to the tower's east leads to the discovery and prompt disintegration of several zombies and then an altercation with a set of giant beetles. The beetles are quickly dispatched, but not before one eats a sizable chunk of Roland's nose. It was only the first of several indignities the proud man would have to suffer through this night. The company harvested the beetle's organs and proceeded on, only to find their progress blocked by a dangerous-looking magical rune inscribed in the floor.
The party traced their path back and decided to explore the area to Alienor's Tower's south, but were quickly foiled by a second magical rune. They then decided to investigate the area to the south of the 'lozenge' to the tower's west on the second floor. A quick investigation discovered a great room of doors; 20 doors, to be exact. Two of the doors were tested, but would not open, perhaps being fake doors placed directly over stone. The party moved to investigate the door directly opposite the door they entered by, but were surprised by a hidden chute implanted in the floor.
Roland and Cut slid hundreds of feet into a small cage occupied by a very unfriendly owlbear. In the time it took for Audrey and Ja to follow the owl-bear-hybrid mauled Roland to within an inch of his life before being quickly finished off by a terrified Cut. Several trinkets were recovered from the cage's floor, but before a proper inventory could be made the room was entered by a team of hungry Night Goblins. The goblins were distracted by slices of Owlbear steak, and the party discovered that they could open the other cages in the room by throwing objects in between the bars. They freed a hungry terror bird and a contemplative white ape this way before convincing the bird to open their own cage. The party snuck out as the goblins and bird gorged themselves.
Horribly lost, the party wandered the halls, unsure even of what level they were on. Theorizing that they were on the fourth level, the party attempted to travel north-east, but were blocked in every direction by terror. In a very short time multiple horrific sights were encountered, including: a room full of 'people' eating, an entire barracks full of some sort of dried-out undead, and a relatively uninteresting armory. The party returned to the cage room, only to find all the goblins slain and a troll vs. terror bird deathmatch. The party slew the troll in short time, while the bird ran. Moving past the zoo the party was able to find a stairway moving up just past a great bas-relief-covered hallway. This led to a filthy wash-room occupied by eight large washer-women golems with multiple metal arms sprouting from their backs. The room was identified as being on the fourth level (implying that the party had fallen all the way to the fifth) and as containing a previously encountered elevator, and the golems were negotiated with. They agreed to allow the party to pass in exchange for the promise of washing supplies to be delivered at a later date and a kiss for each of them from the handsome Lord Zanzibar. Initially reluctant, Roland relented to their demands and satisfied the lips of each of the moldy constructs, inhaling no small amount of mold spores in the process. The party took the lift up to the third level and quickly escaped the chateau.
A night's rest revealed Roland to be suffering from some sort of debilitating but non-lethal mold-related lung illness, and it was decided that he was to be returned to the lodge for some much-needed bed rest. He was replaced by a new recruit, the dwarf Blackjack Dusseldorf. The new party wandered the halls of the first level of the chateau, moving from the donjon to the south side of the first previously encountered magical rune, to the trapped hallway to the west, which was discovered as leading to an area already civilized by the friendly orcs above, and then to the east. Exploring several bedrooms near where the Dragon Tower was suspected to be the party met a strange albino chud-halfling from another dimension named Zodo, who led the party to a secret door by the Raven tower that led down to the second and third floor. The party fought several zombies on the second level and turned back. Also at the half-chud's direction a door leading to the Dragon Tower was discovered. The party investigated several more 'just one more' rooms, until they were set upon by shadows and decided it was time to leave.
The trip back involved being attacked by a team of impoverished goblins, one of which managed to brain Blackjack into unconsciousness with a thrown chisel. They were quickly slain, only to have the party find itself attacked by a great undead Carrion Crawler. Audrey was quickly paralyzed, and the situation looked dangerous for the rest of the party as well, but the crawler was put down before it could paralyze anybody else. The party left via Cezarine's tower and returned to town to sell their loot. Zodo, terrified of the sun, was transported under a pile of rags in the back of the party cart and was given to a noble house in order to grant him a more comfortable life than scavenging for scraps in the Chateau could have provided him.
Enemies Defeated
- A small room full of moist zombies
- Some nose-hungry fire beetles
- A caged owlbear
- A wounded troll
- Another team of zombies
- Several shadows
- A team of impoverished night goblins
- An undead carrion crawler
Treasure Liberated
- a "handfull" of silver pieces (from the footlockers of some zombies)
- various trinkets from the bottom of an owlbear's cage
- a circlet formerly worn by a troll
Losses/Loot
No men were lost, although Roland was brought 2hp from death by a flurry of owlbear slaps, bites, and hugs.
On the first half of the adventure, the party defeated six zombies, five fire beetles, one owlbear and one troll. They obtained four fire beetle glands, a gold chain, a silver bracelet, a gold ring with a tiny yellow gem, and a broken sword hilt set with four ornamental green stones. Each PC earned 160gp and 290xp.
On the second half of the adventure, the party defeated twelve zombies, eight goblins, two shadows and one undead carrion crawler. They obtained several bags of copper and silver coins. Each PC earned 135xp and 15gp.