First Trip to the Cave

This session happened Saturday, May 15, 2010, and is the second of two sessions I ran this past weekend.

Adventuring Group:
Su Bel (human cleric)
Mog the Doomed (half-orc barbarian)
Kallas (human ranger)
Agnes Sunbeard (dwarven rogue/barbarian)
Tycho von Helmont (elven alchemist)

Having accumulated a reasonable sum of money, the adventurers spent some of it on upgraded or specialty gear. Mog commissioned a masterwork Large battleaxe to replace his current one and Khallas commissioned a buckler (later upgraded to +1) and +1 scale mail. Tired of being attacked at night while sleeping and not having any armor for the resultant fight, several players invested in “sleeping armor”: light armor that they can sleep in without waking fatigued. This way they can sleep soundly, knowing that, if awakened by those on watch due to an attack, they will not have to fight “naked” (read: without armor).

With Sal still pouring over the rubbings from the Illustrated Obelisk, the rest of the group decided to go check out the cave in the southern hills on the Table Map. On the fourth day of hiking (after getting terribly lost in the Sea of Grass and attacked by cheetahs) the group arrived at the location on the map. Rather than a low cave leading deep into the earth, they found an abandoned pueblo village high up a cliff face.

Using a grappling hook and rope to gain access, the group started exploring the cluster of seven buildings. After checking out three of the buildings, they were attacked by a gargoyle shaped like a totem. The fight was not looking good as most attacks bounced off the gargoyles stone skin until Tycho attacked with his magic sword and drew blood! Su Bel quickly cast magic weapon on Mog’s battleaxe (Mog already being enlarged at this point). Mog then raged and attacked the gargoyle, killing it in two quick strokes. Exhausted and needing to heal, the group fell back to the entry building and camped.

The group spent the next day searching the remaining buildings. One of the buildings had a spiral stair leading up (possibly to a higher cave opening in the ceiling of the main cave), two of the buildings had stairs leading back and down into the cliff face, and one of those (the one the gargoyle was lairing in/on) had a collection of skulls. There were a wide array of animal skulls, three human skulls (one inscribed with runes), and two troglodyte skulls, which Tycho was able to identify, apparently being wise in the ways of skulls. As the troglodyte skulls were relatively new and some of the group knew that troglodytes live underground, where the stairs appeared to lead, it was decided to return to the Iron Keep rather than push on.

The return trip only took three days, punctuated by Mog nearly being killed and dragged off by some cheetahs that raided the group. He was saved from being cheetah-chow by excellent bowfire from Khallas.

Back in town, the group sold the collection of cheetah pelts to cover travel expenses (food, mostly) and started making plans for further expeditions.

Total time elapsed: 7 days

NOTE:
I need some time to expand out my area maps and populate the region with a few more adventure locales, so I will not be running Southern Reaches this week. Schedule allowing, I should resume running Friday of next week (May 28). I have a collection of thoughts on how things are progressing that I will post next week. I might also post some previews of the new adventure locations, but no promises at this point.