Wednesday, February 2, 2011

Dyson’s Delve – Session 11 – New Allies

This session happened Tuesday, January 25, 2010.  This campaign uses the Dyson’s Delve dungeon pages on A Character for Every Game.  We are using the Pathfinder RPG, so some adjustments were made (or so I’ve been told).

Adventuring Group:
Harkaitz of the Red Soul (male human cleric of Ra)
Wednesday (female elf rogue)
Sahar (female human fighter)
Tre-ba Bel a sheer (female elf alchemist)
Luna (female elf sorcerer)
Frankie Hu, Master of the Distracting Fist (male dwarf monk)

SPOILER ALERT: If You Might Play Through Dyson's Delve, Stop Reading

At Tre-ba’s request, the adventuring party Super Rat remained in Aldelle three days so Tre-ba could brew replacement potions for the ones she used in the Delve.  This time was used to sell off the xill short swords, pick up some tanglefoot bags at the trader’s shop, and get some rest and relaxation in.

Once Tre-ba was ready, the group returned to the Delve.  Entering through the front cave entrance, the adventurers made their way back up to the xill level.  Having checked both side passages (where the xill had been), the double doors straight ahead were now investigated.  These doors were double locked with locks that Wednesday found challenging to pick.  Further, after she picked one and started on the next, the first lock would magically relock itself.  Checking their inventory, the group found they only had one key (taken from the ghoul guarding the stairs to Level 3) and it was too fat to use.  After a few more rounds of trying to pick the locks, Harkaitz stepped up and used produce flame to burn his way through the locks, melting them open.  Satisfied with this, Harkaitz opened the double doors, only to find a second set of double doors with another set of double locks.

And Harkaitz was out of produce flame for the day.

Luckily, the ghoul key fit these locks and Frankie working with Wednesday, using key and lock picks (respectively), were able to open these doors.  Beyond was an impressive temple chamber with a raised platform.  Inscribed on the platform was a five-pointed star that glowed with a strong blue light, lighting up the room.  There were metal circles at each point of the star, each showing the impression of a different animal: monkey, dog, cat, toucan, and viper.  Luna and Harkaitz consulted with each other and quickly came to the conclusion that this was the gate the captive wizard had talked about.  The amulets the adventurers had matched the first three circles and looked like they fit in snugly.  Luna and Harkaitz postulated that if all five amulets were placed in the metal sockets, the gate would open.

With no other exits, exploration of this level was at an end.  Consulting their maps, the adventurers came to the conclusion that there were only two areas in the dungeon they had not investigated thoroughly: the room of the animated statues and the back rooms of the Elemental Temple.  The adventurers decided to try the statue room first as accessing the back rooms of the Temple might bring the entire temple down on them.  Tramping back through the dungeon to the fire shrine in the Elemental Temple, the adventurers stalled when Harkaitz realized he could not melt the wax binding the door in the shrine as he used his only casting of produce flame up in the Gate Shrine.  Luckily, Luna was able to clear out the wax with prestidigitation.  Hopefully no one in the Temple would notice.

Back in the isolated part of Level 6, the adventurers planned their attack on the statues and prepped spells.  All except Tre-ba were nervous, remembering the pummeling the statues had handed out the last time.  Unspiking the door to the small cluster of rooms, the adventurers cautiously advanced.  The statues were not in the first room – apparently they had retreated to their original room.  Sahar led the group forward until she could peak into the statue room.  All four statues were there, still showing the effects of the earlier battle.  Also in the room was an armoire and a writing desk.

The adventurers fell back to the first room and arrayed themselves for battle.  The plan was for Sahar to bait the statues to the entrance to this room where they would be bottle-necked, allowing the adventurers to face them one at a time.  This plan was enacted and worked well.  Sahar lured the statues into attacking and quickly fell back.  Once the statues were attacking, Tre-ba and Luna concentrated acid attacks on the statues, which worked perfectly.  Sahar concentrated swinging as hard as she could [using power attack to great effect] and Harkaitz threw tanglefoot bags to make life difficult for the statues.  After a tense fight, the last statue finally collapsed into rubble!

Wednesday pushed forward into the statue room to search it.  The armoire was empty, but the writing desk contained a magic dagger [+1] and a strongbox full of gems, estimated to be worth 100 gold marks each.  Searching for secret compartments in the furniture, Wednesday found one in the armoire, but set the explosive trap off, destroying the contents. 

With no other paths to Tim, the group decided that they must now talk with the head of the Elemental Temple.  Returning to the main room of the Temple, Harkaitz asked to speak with “whoever was in charge”.  He was directed to one of the priests and asked to talk in private about Tim.  The priest led Harkaitz and Sahar (who came as a bodyguard) into an office in the back, past the room full of guards.  In addition to a desk and such, a harpy was also in this room.  She seemed to be the priest’s bodyguard.

Harkaitz flatly stated that the group of adventurers really weren’t with Tim and he wanted to know how the temple felt about that.  After an elliptical conversation where little was directly said, the priest seemed willing to betray Tim, but wanted a meeting elsewhere to avoid being overheard.  He gave Harkaitz a rapier as a token of recognition and then set the meeting location.  Either the priest or his representative would show and talk could be freer.  Harkaitz agreed and he and Sahar left the priest’s office. 

On the way out, the guard Harkaitz had been friendly with warned Harkaitz to avoid Tim for a while.  Apparently, someone had killed several of Tim’s friend in the upper levels of the dungeon and Tim was might angry about it.  Harkaitz, knowing exactly who the “someone” was, thanked the guard for the tip and rewarded him with one of the gems the group had recently found.  The adventurers then left the Temple (and the Delve) through the back door.

The adventurers immediately hustled to the meeting place to check it out and then returned to Aldelle when it got dark.  The next morning, Wednesday picked up some line to set tripwires with and the adventurers headed to the meeting site, arriving early.  Wednesday set out tripwires and paths of retreat were agreed upon.  Then the adventurers waited, half expecting Tim to show or some other betrayal.

What they got was the harpy.

The harpy (named Scar as was later learned) was the priest’s representative and able to speak for him.  Harkaitz showed the rapier as the token of recognition and the talking got started.  The adventurers learned that Tim had one of the other two amulets on him and the other had been entrusted to someone Tim trusted in the Temple.  The temple itself was formed by several factions Tim put together and they did not all like each other.  The adventurers agreed to take out Tim in exchange for the priest getting the last amulet from its guardian.  Further, the priest will arrange for Tim’s arrival at the Gate Shrine and let the adventurers know when this meeting was set so the ambush could happen.  Once Tim was gone and all five of the amulets were secured, there would be final negotiations on learning how to control where the gate opens and the retrieval of a particular item for the priest through it.  The adventurers agreed to this and the harpy left.  The adventurers returned to Aldelle to await word of when the meeting with Tim would happen.

*End of Session*

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