Delvers Guild – Arc 2, Session 15 – Divvying Spoils and Preparing for the Ball

[December 15 through 20th – The Delvers Guild divided up the unclaimed magic items they had and then we scrolled time to the Royal Winter Ball.]

[This game uses the Fifth Revised Edition of the Hero System rules along with the Fantasy Hero supplement.  This session happened May 23, 2022.]

Player Characters:

Jala – human female – a person of discretion, studier of Pact Magic with a focus on shadows

Ozrel Runeweaver – human male – Pugilist and Rune Magician

Zarek the Red – fox male – Golem-mancer

Vorgand – human female – Guildmaster and Chief Combatant for the Delvers Guild

Ricky the Astrologer – human male – Newly-minted specialist in Magic Circles and Teleportation Gates

Non-Player Characters:

Torsten, Fish, Harek – ex-bandits, now The Torchbearers for the Delvers Guild

Sunday, December 15th, 1st year of the reign of King Vladik the Gamesman

Morning

In the morning, Vorgand handed Lars 100 gold coins and the list of supplies Torsten requested the previous night.  She also requested Lars have a proper banner quickly made for display at the Moon Manor.  The banner would signal that the ruins were now owned and occupied by the Delvers Guild and hopefully keep the Torchbearers out of trouble with any law in the area.

[As a reminder, the Torchbearers (Torsten, Harek, and Fish) are the remains of a small bandit gang that the Delvers discovered squatting in the ruins when the Delvers first arrived.  The two groups shared camp space for a couple hours before the sudden and inevitable betrayal by the bandits...which lasted all of 12 seconds as the bandit leaders and toughs were very quickly killed by the surprisingly powerful Delvers.  After the first round of attacks killed all but 4 of the bandits, Nick gave the survivors a choice: accept paid work holding torches for the Guild while they explored or join their companions in death.  The survivors immediately accepted the jobs as torchbearers for the guild, happy to avoid certain death.  While one of the survivors (Kol) eventually deserted during a “supply run”, the remaining three are somewhat pleased with the current situation.  They get paid in gold regularly, they are not expected to fight, good food is supplied (to avoid any further “supply runs”), and the work is at most one day out of seven.  With the repair work they’ve done during the slack time and the furniture Jala brought them, the once ruined chapel is starting to get fairly homey.]

The Delvers used Ricky’s Gate to travel over to the Moon Manor and spent the morning going over the magic items they had recovered from various places and not yet doled out.  After spending the morning discussing and debating the items, they were apportioned out.

• Vorgand took the Circlet of Mindblasting.
• Zarek took the scroll of Thaumaturgic Harness.
• Ozrel claimed the Liquor of Will (a potion) and the Necklace of Stormbeads.
• Ricky claimed the Scroll Covers of Preservation [hoping they would restore the extremely fragile maps in the moon ship], the Belt Buckle of Water-walking, and joint custody of the Pin of Invisibility with Jala.
• Jala took the Flaming Spear and joint custody of the Pin of Invisibility with Ricky.

The scrolls containing Protection from Air and Lifekeeping were unclaimed and will likely be sold, as will the potion of Clairaudience.  Zarek needs to do research on the magical incense and the rune amulets to determine their functions.

Afternoon

Back in Aegea City, Zarek went to the library of Monarch University to start researching the unidentified magic items.  He spent most of his time in the Elven Knowledge part of the library, which was 5 shelves of books, some of dubious accuracy.  Luckily, Ricky had directed Zarek on which books to avoid.  After spending the afternoon reading, the best he had were references in a theology book to "The 14 Demon Hunters", recognized only by their unique amulets and honored among elves, but no explanation given as to why they were honored, but the pattern on the amulets was the same as on the amulets the Guild had retrieved.  The few references claimed the amulets protected the wearer from “the foreknowledge of the demons”.  Zarek postulated that this was a form of protection from scrying.

Vorgand and Ozrel took the Torchbearers back to the Stone Halls and spent over four hours hauling the remaining 5 sarcophagus lids out of the lowest level of the Stone Halls to the Portal Chamber at the top of the Slanted Gallery.  From there they hauled the lids through the portal to the moon for safe storage.

Jala made use of the Pin of Invisibility, wandering the city while invisible and satisfying her curiosity about the interior of various places she otherwise would not have been allowed in.

Ricky spent time at the Guildhall working on a new spell, one able to magically repair things that were broken.

Early Evening

On his way back to the Guildhall, Zarek stopped at a street vendor and picked up some food.  He delivered the food to the elves spying on the Guildhall.  He then sat with them for a bit before heading into the Guildhall.  This confused the elves [and suggested to them their observation had definitely been noticed].

December 15th through 20th, 1st year of the reign of King Vladik the Gamesman

The Guild sent correspondence to the guild applicants, announcing their acceptance into the Delvers Guild.  They also announced the first Grand Gathering of the Guild, set for the evening of December 24.  The schedule of activities include: meals and drinks, membership oaths, and dancing.  Lars was tasked with having the ballroom decorated for the event and to arrange for the display of items recovered by the guild.  Lars and Vorgand would work together to select the proper items for display.  The founders then spent the week either preparing for attending the Royal Winter Ball or pursuing their own research/training.

Vorgand spent the week practice dancing with Victor Yakovovich, her +1 for the Ball.  By the end of the week they could dance well together so neither would embarrass the Guild.

Jala found a capable artisan and commissioned a quality set of goggles for later use as a magical focus.  She also spent time dreading being the +1 for Bellinus Dragonslayer.

Ricky split his days, studying the each of the two scrolls retrieved from the Elven Imperial Shrine and getting a rough location of the Stone Halls based on his view from the moon.  With his ownership of the Sentinel War Hammer of Alertness he no longer needed to sleep and was able to pursue all three goals at once.  Both scrolls seemed to be early histories of the Elven Imperium, but Ricky did not recognize any of the place names given.  Based on his observations from the moon, Ricky estimated that the Stone Halls were somewhere in the desert known as the Dreaded Emptiness.

Zarek spent time working on a spell to control the temperature inside of containers as part of his plan to duplicate the magi-tech devices in the galley of the moon ship.  He took a break from this for a day and hung out with the elves spying on the guildhall, bringing his fancy magic pillow from the moon ship to sleep on.  The elves, under orders to maintain observation of the guildhall, added this to their daily notes.

End of Session

Guild Postings

[I needed a break from writing these up and spent most of my spare time doing an unplanned revision of Adventures in the Green, Book I, Draft E.  I looked over the Wilderness Exploration rules pamphlet I put together for the playtest and discovered I didn’t like a lot of the text.  Rewriting it in the pamphlet required mirroring those changes in the main books and hey, I had a lot of redline edits and changes from the Saturday campaign, so I started including those.  I also started more seriously rewriting sections in my own voice, which I had not fully decided on in the last edit for Book I, but had for Book II.]

[Editing is always a snowball like this – you can never make just one change and then come back later.]

[Anyhoo – that’s why there was no blog post last week.  Sorry about that.]

Delvers Guild

Guild Organizational Document

Arc 1

Arc 1 Landing Page – Links to all Arc 1 sessions

Arc 2

Arc 2 Landing Page – Links to all Arc 2 sessions, as they post

Last Session: Arc 2, Session 14

Next Session: Arc 2, Session 16 [Not Yet Typed Up]

Delvers Guild – Session 30 – The Moon Boat and the Blue Sun

[In-game November 23rd – The Delvers investigate the strange boat on the moon, then back to the Underruins.]

[I was running behind getting this posted because my life was busy this past week, so it still needs a good edit.  I’m posting it now to get it out there – I’ll edit it later this week.]

[This game uses the Fifth Revised Edition of the Hero System rules along with the Fantasy Hero supplement.  This session happened November 16, 2020.]

Player Characters:

Jala – human female – a person of discretion, studying aspects of the Law [to avoid them] at the Dusk Academy

Ricky the Astrologer – human male – has a thirst for knowledge but doesn’t know what he’s searching for, currently studying Astrology at Monarch University

Zarek the Red – fox male – a cerebrally-unfettered spell researcher [read: Mad Scientist] turned into a talking fox, studying Natural Philosophy at Monarch University to find a way to become human again

Vorgand – human female – professional porter and Adventurer’s Aide, irregularly attends classes at The Tested military academy, practitioner of Steel Serpent martial arts, and Guildmaster of the Delvers Guild

Via Roll20

Nick Stalwart – human male – part of the Stalwart family of merchants, studying Mathematics at The Interesting Institute of Profitable People, a college at Monarch University

Not Appearing in this Session

Clarence – human male – studies Religion in Temples district, coincidentally the group healer

Non-Player Characters:

Torsten, Fish, Harek – ex-bandits, now The Torchbearers for the Delvers Guild

Konrad Moonclub – Stalwart family factor in Little Wytheford

Orm Oxdriver – driver of the guild’s over-sized, double-decker vardo

Yggsday, November 23rd, 1st year of the reign of King Vladik the Gamesman

Noon-ish

The Delvers, having hauled the “Billiards” table up from the lower level of the moon base, parked it in the hub.  Getting it through the airlocks was time consuming and they were not certain if they were just going to store it with the other loot or take it back to the Moon Manor ruins.  In the meantime, they wanted to explore the strange boat.  Clarence cast Sense the Unholy to verify there were no undead lurking in the boat room.  Once he declared the area safe, the Delvers went through the airlock doors from the hub to the boat room.

Having time to actually look at the boat and not fighting for his life, Nick recognizes the boat as elven in general.  It had lateen sails and additional rigging on each side of the hull that looked like additional sails, which confused Nick until he realized they were folded back against the hull.  Nick estimated that the ship could be handled by two trained sailors or four to five people who could take orders.  He was not certain if the rest of the Delvers counted.

Zarek cast Detect Magic and looked around.  The walls of the base structure detected as magical, as did the boat itself.  Two panels on the walls, one near the large folding doors that made up the back wall of the chamber and one near the airlock doors.  Zarek investigated the panel near the airlock doors and discovered it controlled the lights for the chamber.  He then flew over to the panel near the backdoors of the chamber.  These appeared to open and close something.  He shared this information with the rest of the group.  Vorgand walked over and pressed what she guessed was the “open” button [< >].  The back wall started folding onto itself in sections until most of it was open to the outside.  Zarek then flew up to investigate the catwalks above the ship.

At the same time Zarek and Vorgand were investigating the panel that opened the back wall, Nick and Ricky climbed aboard the ship to investigate it.  The main deck had a door at either end, one leading to the forecastle area, the other under the aft-deck.  Shallow steps flanked the doors, leading up to each deck.  A large hatch in the center of the deck appeared to offer access to the cargo area below decks.  There were planters full of dead plants along the all the railings on all three decks and flanking the doors.  Jala attempted to use her Shadow Veil spell to look around inside the ship, but there were no shadows for her to make use of.

While Zarek investigated the catwalks, Vorgand joined the others on the ship.  The group on board decided to look for the captain’s quarters.  The door to the area under the aft-deck seemed most likely so they opened that door.  It opened on a narrow hallway that ran left and right the width of the ship, the walls of which were ornately carved.  There were three doors on the opposite wall, equally spaced along that wall.  Nick suggested that the center door was most likely to lead to the captain’s cabin.  It had a panel on the wall that suggested they needed the card key to open it.  Jala was called for as she had the group’s only key card.  She checked the door for traps and then unlocked it with the card key.

Behind the door was a small room, about ten feet by ten feet.  A fold down table was on the left wall.  Ricky recognized the design and carefully lowered it.  Behind it was a set of pigeonholes containing a half-dozen or so rolled up documents that Ricky was certain/hoping were maps or charts.

By this time Zarek had completed his investigation of the catwalks and found nothing of interest.  He flew down to the ship while his Detect Magic spell was still active.  He saw additional magics around the steering mechanisms.  Once he was in the map room, he saw preservation magics on the various rolled up documents.  Zarek randomly selected one of the rolled up documents and told Ricky to open it.  Ricky, making use of his recently acquired knowledge on preserving ancient books carefully pulled it out and set it down on the table.  He attempted to carefully roll it open…and broke off a slice two to three inches in width.  [Everyone cringed.]  Luckily the slice contained most of the map’s legend and part of the map itself.  The map appeared to be of a city and the legend gave its name as Galad Othrond, which none of the Delvers had heard of before.  Ricky recognized it as matching one of the names on the malachite orb.

With little to do in this room, Jala and Vorgand opened the door in the back, which opened to the captain’s quarters.  The quarters took up the entire width of the ship and half the depth of the aft-deck area.  Large windows made of stained glass made up the back wall and every wooden surface was beautifully carved.  The stained glass windows showed a woodland scene with strange trees that the Delvers had only seen once before – painted on the walls of a elven tomb.  A large comfortable bed was on one side of the room, anchored to the floor, and a large desk and some chairs on the other.  Two large sea chests with locking mechanisms in the shape of rose blossoms were also latched down to the floor.  Jala took some time attempting to unlock one of the sea chests, but the lock was exceptionally complex and of a type she had never seen before.  Five minutes later she thought she had it, but she triggered a mechanism that sealed the lock off for a period.  Jala switched over to the other chest and started to pick its lock, taking her time.

Zarek, Ricky, and Nick made their ways into the cabin and the group started searching the entire room.  Zarek noticed one of the pillows on the bed had preservative magic on it and was still fluffy.  He immediately claimed it as his new bed.  Ricky pulled out the two drawers under the bed and found an old sock, two luxurious blankets for the bed, and a single elven playing card.  He also found a single earring with 5 pearls on it while searching the bed sheets.  Zarek checked the earring and it detected as magic, so it went into the loot bag.  Vorgand examined the desk.  It had two drawers on each side, all of which were locked.  [Somewhere around here the notes lose track of Nick, so I’m not certain exactly what he was doing from this point on.]

Zarek detected locking magic on the first sea chest and determined it would remain locked for several hours.  He warned Jala of its presence.  She grunted back at the fox and then failed to pick the lock on the second chest, activating the locking magic on it.  She cursed much.  Ricky suggested she try the card key to see if it worked on the locks.  At her wits end, Jala gave it a try.  The card key deactivated the locking magic, granting Jala access to the mechanisms again.  She thanked Ricky for the suggestion.

Ricky crawled under the desk to see if there was a hidden catch and found one!  He triggered it and a concealed lap drawer popped open.  In it was an ornate lightning pistol.  Ricky handed it over to Zarek to examine.  Zarek asked Jala for the other one so he could compare the two.  Jala grudgingly handed it over and then waited to get it back as soon as he was done.  After a quick inspection of the two pistols to verify they seemed to have the same functions, Zarek handed the original one back to Jala.  Jala then went and started working on the desk lock.  She inspected it for traps and found one, which she disabled.  The she started working on the lock, taking her time.

Having finished searching the captain’s cabin, Ricky, Zarek, and Vorgand left Jala there to work on the lock.  They went and investigated the door to their right (starboard-side of the ship).  This door opened to a smaller, but just as well decorated bedroom.  They searched the room and the bed, finding a dark opal broach in a platinum setting, another solitary elven playing card, and more bedding.

The last room on this hall was a very small kitchen with odd cooking surfaces and an oven with no firebox.  Zarek cast Detect Magic and all of the appliances were magical!  Zarek immediately started investigating them, taking notes and pondering their working principles [major Psychological Limitation triggered].  As Zarek started muttering to himself and making arcane notes in his notebook, Vorgand and Ricky descended either a wide-stepped ladder or the shallowest set of stairs ever.  This led to a narrow pantry with cabinets on the inner wall and shelves on the outer wall.  Investigating the cabinets turned up the remains of dried goods in stiff paper boxes [think cardboard boxes, but the characters have never seen cardboard].  One of the cabinets is noticeably cooler inside it and there is the residue of long spoiled food inside.  There was a carved wooden area in front of the stairs/ladder that caught Ricky’s eye.  Investigating closer, he discovered that pushing on one of the carvings caused the entire panel to open!  Behind the panel was a small but rich collection of elven alcoholic beverages.  Ricky grabbed two of the fanciest looking bottles to take with him while Vorgand took a bottle of wine.  Vorgand noticed that the wine rack was very slowly rotating the bottles, so she had some hope the wine might still be drinkable.

[Ah, the notes catch up with Nick again.]

Nick, being of a practical mind, decided that Zarek, Ricky, and Vorgand would be enough to search the rest of the aft-deck area.  He went back out onto the main deck and opened the cargo hatch.  The majority of the lower deck was for cargo.  The area under the aft deck was partially walled off, as was the area under the forecastle, but there was a door to under the forecastle area, so he investigated that way.  Behind that door a hallway to the front of the ship, with a single door on each side.  Those doors opened onto small barracks with bunkbeds [firmly anchored to the floor].  At the end of the hall was a ladder up to a hatch.  Nick climbed the ladder and through the hatch.  This area was a single chamber with posts and mounts for hammocks.  The single door here led back to the main deck.

Having checked below decks, Nick headed to the aft deck to investigate the controls for the ship.  There he found a ship’s wheel, but it appeared to be mounted in such a way to be able to lean forward and backwards.  Additionally, there were several large levers to either side of the ship’s wheel.  Nick speculated they connected to the retracted masts and sails mounted on either side of the ship’s hull.  He used the Wand of Winds to vibrate the various lines on those masts to work out which lever or levers connected to which mast and sails.  After a while he feels he has an idea of what they do, but there isn’t enough room in the building to test his ideas.

In the meantime, Ricky realized that it was getting close to 3:00 and the portal would stop working soon.  He returned to the captain’s cabin to find Jala cursing at the lock on the desk.  She failed to unlock the desk and triggered another time lock.  Ricky said it was time to go and helped her carry one of the sea chests off the ship.  Vorgand picked up the second chest herself and followed the two of them out the back of the building [which was still open] and over to the front airlock.  Zarek closed the hangar folding doors after they left after discussing it with Vorgand over the magic earrings.  He then followed Nick and Clarence out through the airlock doors to the hub and then to the loot room.  The entire group picked up the elven objects d’art from the behir loot and rushed back to the portal.  Vorgand also had some scrap paper found on the ship to see how it reacted to the air at the Moon Manor.  Ricky had the desk drawer full of papers from the office desk.  As the last Delver returned to the portal room under Moon Manor, the portal flickered and then blipped to the cavern that makes Zarek uneasy.  Zarek promptly pulled the power gem from the control cabinet, deactivating the portal.

After catching their breath, the Delvers discussed what to do next.  They decided that there are two things they need to do immediately: recharge more of the power gems and get additional card keys.  They decided to start with recharging the power gems.

Based on the power arcing off the blue sun in the Blue Sun room [where the power gems are recharged], the Delvers decided that anyone going in needed to have magical protection.  Zarek cast his Stoney Skin spell on himself and Vorgand and Clarence [in NPC mode] cast Shield of Faith on them as well.  Vorgand, Zarek, and Ricky entered the airlock doors to the Blue Sun room.  Ricky stayed in the airlock to watch the happenings while Zarek and Vorgand entered the room itself.

The entire room was lit with a strong blue glow from the blue sun hovering over the power machine.  Vorgand approached the machine and placed three of the empty power gems on matching indentions atop it.  Zarek observed the behavior of the device and the blue sun itself.  The gems started glowing brighter and brighter.  Zarek noticed that, as they charged, the blue sun slowly reduced the amount of arcing it was doing.  When the gems started giving off sparks, Vorgand removed them.  They were quite warm to the touch.  Zarek found the whole process fascinating and drifted closer to get a better view.  When Vorgand noticed, she threatened to grab his tail and smack him against a wall if he started tinkering with the device.  Zarek stated he could not deny it was very tempting.  He handed over the last uncharged gem to Vorgand for her to recharge.

Once the gems were recharged and Zarek, Vorgand, and Ricky exited the airlock, the Delvers pursued getting more card keys.  As they got their first one by taking it from one of the cleaning golems on the upper level, Zarek and Ricky went back up using Ricky’s Shadowstep spell.  Jala used her Shadowjumping spell to take one of the sea chests up.  Her spell does not have quite the range of Ricky’s, so she teleported part way up the stair shaft and then teleported the rest of the way to the chapel, nearly giving Orm a heart attack when she appeared with the chest.

Ricky and Zarek when to the small room where the cleaning golems recharge or rest or whatever they do when they are not cleaning.  There are four golems there.  Zarek cast Detect Magic and looked for the card keys.  Three of the golems still had their card keys, but only two still radiated magic.  After a quick debate, they took only one of the magical card keys.  Instead of heading back down immediately, Zarek and Ricky went to the room in the southeast corner.  This room required a card key to get in, so it allowed them to test the card key they had just stolen.  The card key worked.  While they were there, they checked the desk in this room for a concealed lap drawer like the desks on the moon.  They found one!  Inside it was a wand [mostly charged], an amulet [octagonal with eight stacked lines enameled on it], and an armband [with an odd helix pattern], all three of which detected as magical.  Ricky and Zarek quickly made their way to the corner room in the opposite corner of the Underruins.  The desk in that room also had a concealed lap drawer, but it was empty.

Zarek and Ricky reported their findings over the magical earrings.  Vorgand told them to make their way back down to the portal room.  Jala reported that she had stashed the sea chest for later examination and would be back down shortly.  By 3:30 all the Delvers were back down at the portal room.

End of Session

[So, Clarence’s player fell asleep after getting off work and missed the game.  His work is super busy right now and he’s working 12-hour days, so it is understandable.  I’d rather he get the sleep he needs so he is safe driving to and from work.  We faded Clarence into the background, which is our standard response when a player is unable to make a game and their character is present.]

Delvers Guild

Session A, Character Creation Part 1

Session B, Character Creation Part 2

Session 01

…

Session 10

…

Session 20

Session 21

Session 22

Session 23

Session 24

Session 25

Guild Organizational Outline

Session 26

Session 27

Session 28

Session 29

Session 31

Delvers Guild – Session 29 – Upstairs then Downstairs

[In-game November 23rd – The Delvers continue exploring the moon base.]

[This game uses the Fifth Revised Edition of the Hero System rules along with the Fantasy Hero supplement.  This session happened November 9, 2020.]

Player Characters:

Jala – human female – a person of discretion, studying aspects of the Law [to avoid them] at the Dusk Academy

Ricky the Astrologer – human male – has a thirst for knowledge but doesn’t know what he’s searching for, currently studying Astrology at Monarch University

Zarek the Red – fox male – a cerebrally-unfettered spell researcher [read: Mad Scientist] turned into a talking fox, studying Natural Philosophy at Monarch University to find a way to become human again

Vorgand – human female – professional porter and Adventurer’s Aide, irregularly attends classes at The Tested military academy, practitioner of Steel Serpent martial arts, and Guildmaster of the Delvers Guild

Via Roll20

Nick Stalwart – human male – part of the Stalwart family of merchants, studying Mathematics at The Interesting Institute of Profitable People, a college at Monarch University

Clarence – human male – studies Religion in Temples district, coincidentally the group healer

Non-Player Characters:

Torsten, Fish, Harek – ex-bandits, now The Torchbearers for the Delvers Guild

Konrad Moonclub – Stalwart family factor in Little Wytheford

Orm Oxdriver – driver of the guild’s over-sized, double-decker vardo

Yggsday, November 23rd, 1st year of the reign of King Vladik the Gamesman

Late Morning

The Delvers continued catching their breath after the fight with the two Black Gem Skeletons.  Once he was no longer panting quite as hard, Ricky started looking through the bookshelf in the room.  Amongst two shelves of light reading [elven westerns – imagine a cowboy story written by a Victorian Briton who had westerns explained to him by a visiting American but who had not actually read any] were three books on summoning magic and one on magical summoning/containment circles.

• The Journal of Revised Abjuration
• The Catalogue of Summoning
• Grimoire of Western Temples
• Illuminated Inscriptions of Forlorn Magic

Jala and Ricky then investigated the desk in the office.  There were two drawers on the left side and the desk was locked and appeared to be trapped.  Jala attempted to disable the trap, but it was complicated and she instead set it off.  There was a “woomph” noise and then smoke started leaking out of the desk drawers.  The trap was apparently designed to incinerate whatever was inside the desk, but with no burnable air…  Jala set to picking the lock.

Once the desk was unlocked, Jala carefully opened the top drawer.  Inside were some slightly singed documents in a loose stack.  Ricky stepped up to evaluated the papers and the safety of moving them.  The documents were very fragile and Ricky decided that the best way to safely move them was to pull out the entire drawer.  

In the process of helping Ricky remove the drawer, Jala ended up under the desk and noticed a well-hidden button.  Pushing it released a concealed lap drawer from the desk.  Jala pulled the lap drawer out.  In a custom space was a device shaped like the grip and flight groove of a hand crossbow, but without the tension limbs a string would connect to [and no string].  Zarek cast Detect Magic and saw that the device was imbued with invocation magic, some form of lightning magic to Zarek’s educated eyes.  It was clearly a weapon, so the group decided to not test it in the small room.

Finished investigating the office and with everyone rested, the group left the room and examined the remaining door on this floor.  Clarence cast Sense the Unholy again to verify there were no undead nor demons in the next room.  The door needed a card key to open and Jala could find no traps on it, so she unlocked the door and backed away.  Ricky opened it.

The room beyond was completely dark, which was unusual for the moon base.  Ricky cast Darkvision and could then see that the room was thirty feet square with a very ornate circle inscribed in the center of the room on the floor.  Ricky took a moment to memorize what he was seeing and then pulled the door closed.  He then went over to a corner and pulled out Illuminated Inscriptions of Forlorn Magic, his recently found book on magic circles.  Carefully flipping through the book, he discovered that the circle was comprised of three different circles listed in the book.  All three are extremely potent summoning and binding circles – for use against deities or major demons kind of stuff.  After he informed the group of this, Jala verified the door locked when Ricky closed it.  If the clearly active circle still contained something, none of the Delvers wanted anyone else accidentally letting it loose.

With nothing further to explore on this level, the Delvers made their way down the stairs.  The stairs were steep and descended thirty feet.  At the bottom of the steps was one end of a hallway with the open stairs facing that end.  The hallway went from the end in front of the delvers and past the stairs to areas behind them.  A panel of with some sort of controls was on the wall to the left of the lowest step at shoulder height.  Past the open railing on the right of the stairs, a side passage off the main hallway could dimly be seen.  There was also no light.

Vorgand studied the panel on the wall.  There were two large buttons and some smaller ones.  She pressed one of the two large buttons and nothing happened.  She then pressed the other large button and suddenly the lower level was completely lit!  The Delvers could now see two doors on either side of the side passage to their right.

Clarence was asked to cast Sense the Unholy again to verify there were no undead down here.  Instead of an “all clear”, Clarence reported four more skeletons, off to the right.  The Delvers became alert again.  They stepped off the stairs and walked to the right, around the staircase and into the side passage.  In the side passage, Clarence cast again and reported that there were two skeletons on either side of the passage and they seemed to be isolated to one per room.  The Delvers were encouraged by this.

The Delvers prepared for a fight.  Zarek adjusted his attack spell [made it Burst Fire and Armor Piercing].  Clarence cast Shield of Faith on himself, Vorgand, and Ricky.  Nick prepared the Wand of Wind while Jala took a swig of her Potion of Speed.  Jala also drew the odd weapon from the desk upstairs, seeing an opportunity to test it.

Ricky pushed open the first door on the left.  Behind it was a moderate bedroom with a single bed, a table with two chairs, and a chest.  Lying on the bed was a skeleton with a black gem in its forehead.  Ricky immediately successfully cast Dark Leeching on the skeleton, weakening it.  As the skeleton started to react, Jala pointed the odd weapon as if it were a hand-crossbow at the skeleton’s gem and pulled the trigger.  A bolt of lightning jumped from the weapon and hit the skeleton, shattering the gem and blowing off half the skeletons skull with it!  Zarek floated over Jala and cast his attack spell, which finished off the skeleton.

Suspecting that the noise of the lightning pistol might draw the other three skeletons, the Delvers rushed to the next door on the left…except Jala, who stayed to search the room.  She had no protective magic on her like the others and wanted nothing more to do with the combat.

Ricky opened the door on the next room.  It was another moderate bedroom, but the skeleton was just sitting up.  Ricky cast Dark Leeching on it.  Clarence cast Sacred Fire but failed to connect, setting the bed on fire [it quickly went out due to the unbreathable (no oxygen) air].  Vorgand rushed in and attacked with her rapier, shattering the black gem.  Zarek cast and hit the skeleton, but it was still moving.  Nick attempted to grab it with the Wand of Wind but failed.  In response to the attacks, the skeleton rose to its feet, stalked across the room, and hit a red button on the wall.  This triggered a klaxon and flashing red lights throughout the lower floor.

Nick tried again and grabbed the skeleton.  Vorgand struck the held skeleton with the pommel of her sword, finally breaking it.  At the same time, Clarence, still in the hall, called out that the other two doors were opening.  A Black Gem Skeleton stepped out of each door and looked at the group down at the end of the passage.

In the ensuing fight, the Delvers fought hard against the skeletons.  Jala stayed in the first room until the fighting ended, not believing the others when they told her she would be safe if she joined in the fight.  [Her definition of safe was a little more absolute that the one used by the others.]  Vorgand shattered the gems in the foreheads of the skeletons as only she had the accuracy to hit them directly.  Eventually both skeletons were broken and the fight ended, leaving the Delvers panting hard from the effort but mostly uninjured due to their protective magics.

While recovering from their efforts, the group looked for a way to turn off the alarm klaxon.  Pressing the red buttons again did not work.  Vorgand eventually solved the problem by using the control panel at the foot of the stairs, turning the lights off and then back on, which deactivated the klaxon.  Clarence cast Sense the Unholy again and verified there were no more undead.

The bedrooms had nothing of value in them.  Zarek was disappointed as he was looking for a good pillow to make a bed out of.  These were all flattened and lumpy with age.

The Delvers returned to the main hallway and continued exploring.  The next chamber was a common room with comfortable chairs and various table games, including one Ricky had only ever read about called “billiards” that only elves played.  There was also a dart board with a single dagger stuck in it.  The dagger detected as magical, so Zarek took it for later investigation.  Zarek also asked for the lightning pistol from Jala.  Jala declined, saying she felt safer with it.

An adjoining room turned out to be a barracks.  The Delvers took their time searching both rooms, but only came up with 14 ancient elven copper coins and some more Elven light reading books.  There is some discussion about holding on to the coins for resale as antiques.  Ricky packed away the books.

Using Vorgand’s strength and the Wand of the Wind, the Delvers packed up and moved the heavy billiards table plus all the equipment Ricky identified as necessary for playing the game.  Jala also took the dart board, although there were no darts.  Upstairs, the group took a rest.  Zarek was able to talk Jala into letting him examine the lightning pistol.  It had an indicator showing current charge and some sort of selector switch.  Ricky read the elven script for the settings, but determined they were abbreviations and not words, so he was uncertain what they meant.

End of Session

[While the players decided to avoid the magic circle, and quite rightly I might add, I do know what is contained within it.  It’s a spoiler and my players read this blog occasionally, so I can’t say what yet.  The players also realized they should go back and investigate the other desks under the Moon Manor ruins for more hidden weapons.  But first, it is time to investigate the strange boat in the hangar…]

[I was able to get this posting up in time, but only just.  I’m at the point where I need to do some research and planning again for this campaign.  The original plan was to stop after the PCs found the boat on the moon or the in-game calendar reached 1 Martius, however the players are enjoying the game and their characters, so they want to keep playing.  That means I need to set up some larger areas for them to explore and set up a timetable of events that will happen on particular calendar dates as the PCs have put things in motion due to their actions.  Evidence of that will start showing up soon.  I just need to sit and think a bit more so it is coherent.]

Delvers Guild

Session A, Character Creation Part 1

Session B, Character Creation Part 2

Session 01

…

Session 10

…

Session 20

Session 21

Session 22

Session 23

Session 24

Session 25

Guild Organizational Outline

Session 26

Session 27

Session 28

Session 30

UPDATE: Corrected date the game happened.

Delvers Guild – Session 28 – Black Gem Skeletons!

[In-game November 21st to 23rd – The Delvers return to the moon to explore the moon base further.]

[This game uses the Fifth Revised Edition of the Hero System rules along with the Fantasy Hero supplement.  This session happened November 2, 2020.]

Player Characters:

Jala – human female – a person of discretion, studying aspects of the Law [to avoid them] at the Dusk Academy

Ricky the Astrologer – human male – has a thirst for knowledge but doesn’t know what he’s searching for, currently studying Astrology at Monarch University

Zarek the Red – fox male – a cerebrally-unfettered spell researcher [read: Mad Scientist] turned into a talking fox, studying Natural Philosophy at Monarch University to find a way to become human again

Vorgand – human female – professional porter and Adventurer’s Aide, irregularly attends classes at The Tested military academy, practitioner of Steel Serpent martial arts, and Guildmaster of the Delvers Guild

Via Roll20

Nick Stalwart – human male – part of the Stalwart family of merchants, studying Mathematics at The Interesting Institute of Profitable People, a college at Monarch University

Clarence – human male – studies Religion in Temples district, coincidentally the group healer

Non-Player Characters:

Torsten, Fish, Harek – ex-bandits, now The Torchbearers for the Delvers Guild

Konrad Moonclub – Stalwart family factor in Little Wytheford

Orm Oxdriver – driver of the guild’s over-sized, double-decker vardo

Cromsday, November 21st, 1st year of the reign of King Vladik the Gamesman

Vorgand finalizes hiring terms on an ex-batsman named Lars.  Lars is responsible for upkeep of the Delvers Guild Guildhall with a salary of 50 gold coin per month.  His was authorized to start the cleaning of the first floor with a fixed monthly budget [which the GM, me, will work out at a later time, but it is enough to hire a cleaning crew].  Lars has also been authorized to request bids for the restoration of the exterior of the Guildhall.

The Delvers prepared for their next expedition to the Moon Manor.  Ricky planned to stay the week at the Moon Manor to create a magic circle there.  He arranged for extra food and supplies for inlaying and enchanting the magic circle.  Jala packed up the extra clothes, coats, and other supplies she purchased for The Torchbearers.

Freysday, November 22nd, 1st year of the reign of King Vladik the Gamesman

Dawn

The Delvers Guild boarded the morning ferry to Little Wytheford and took their usual places aboard.  The weather was clear but chilly with strong winds from the north.  They made good time across Dragon Bay.

11:00 AM

After arriving early at Little Wytheford’s River Docks, the Delvers made their way to the Stalwart family warehouse.  Konrad has the vardo completely loaded with the requested supplies.  The Delvers barely have room for the additional things they brought with them and then themselves.  Konrad presented the invoice for the supplies and Nick paid it.  Jala requested Konrad look for three beds and bedframes for delivery later and [after getting the nod from Nick] agreed to do so.  Jala paid him for the purchases he would make.

Orm hooked up the oxen to the vardo and steered it out of the town and then south to the Moon Manor.  The going was slow due to the extra supplies, but the path was mostly dry.

After Dusk

The vardo arrived at the Moon Manor ruins.  It was flying the flag of the Delvers Guild, but the sun had set so none could see it.  Fish was on duty and called out a challenge [even though he had a good idea who it was – it pays to be certain in the wilderness].  Zarek flew ahead and nearly startled Fish into shooting him, but they got the situation sorted out and Orm drove the vardo up next to the entrance to the ruins.

The Delvers and the Torchbearers spent the following two hours unloading the supplies in the vardo and getting them squared away in the chapel.  The Torchbearers were pleased by the clothes and furniture Jala gifted to them, particularly the new coats as winter was starting to settle in.

Yggsday, November 23rd, 1st year of the reign of King Vladik the Gamesman

Morning

After a hearty breakfast, the Delvers and the Torchbearers opened the makeshift door to the Moon Manor under-ruins and climbed down.  As they made their way to the stair shaft to the lower level, the stopped at the northwest corner room so Ricky could evaluate it as the location of the receiving magic circle.  The desiccated elf corpse was no longer in the chair behind the desk.  The Delvers suspected that the cleaning golems had removed it as the room was also relatively dust free now.

Ricky looked over the room and took some measurements.  He estimated that the room would work, but they would need to take up the carpeting so he could access the stone floor for inscribing the circle.  They also needed to work out a way to keep the cleaning golems out of the room, something the group would need to give thought to later.  Jala, reminded by the desk in the room, mentioned out loud that she needed to get a desk for the Torchbearers.  The other Delvers suggested they just bring this desk up when they return.

Once Ricky was satisfied the room would work, the group continued.  On their way down the stairs in the stair shaft, they again discussed repairing the gap in the stairs and mending the crack in the wall letting in the water.  There was some discussion about which would be easier to fix – the crack letting in the water of the magical lift.  No answer was achieved.

Down in the portal room, Zarek set up the control cubes for the moon and then placed the power crystal in place to activate the portal.  Nothing happened.  Non-plussed, Zarek cast Detect Magic on the crystal and discovered that it was not as magical as when originally found.  Suspecting it needed to be re-charged, he swapped it for the charged gem Vorgand had.  The portal opened immediately.  The group made not they need to go to the Room of the Blue Sun to recharge the original power gem and probably a few of the others as well.

With the portal open to the moon, the couch was retrieved and set up so the Torchbearers would be able to comfortably keep an eye on things while the Delvers explored the rest of the small moon base.  The Delvers went through the portal and Clarence cast Sense the Unholy.  He verified that he could sense two undead skeletons in the back structure of the base.

 The Delvers entered the structure.  The front room still contained the loot they had taken from the behir.  They continued through the airlock doors to the building hub.  There they paused so Jala could use her shadow veil to peer through the shadows on the other side of the next airlock.  She sees the front half of the structure, which looks like a living room with some sort of kitchen behind it.  On the left are stairs going down and a hallway to the back half of the structure with two doors, one on the right wall and one at the far end.  With no apparent skeletons, Clarence cast Sense the Unholy again to get a better idea of their location.  Both skeletons appeared to be in the back-left corner of the structure, which would put them behind the door at the far end of the short hallway.

With the way clear to enter this area, the Delvers went through the airlock doors.  Jala and Clarence had been here before, but the others hadn’t, so they took some time to look around.  [This is the original location for the couch and four of the chairs the group sold through Ferragus.]  Satisfied there was no threat nor any loot, the Delvers moved into the short hallway to the back.  

Jala used her shadow veil spell to peer into the back room.  It appeared to be some sort of office.  She had trouble finding usable shadows to peer through [the outer walls of the entire structure are magical and allow most light through], but eventually got a look at the skeletons.  They had desiccated skin clinging to their bones and black gems of some sort embedded into their foreheads.  Vorgand recognized this description – she had seen the Revengers fight skeletons like this in Barrowmaze!  [Download and read Barrowmaze Using ACKS Book 2: Rise of the Revengers for more information.] 

Vorgand shared what she knew about these skeletons with the rest of the Delvers, which included the fact that they would get back up unless the gem in their forehead was destroyed.  As a result of this information, Zarek prepared two different attack spells.  Clarence cast Armor of Faith on himself, Vorgand, and Ricky.  Nick cast Wave Breaker on himself and drew the Wand of Wind.  Vorgand used her magical whetstone to sharpen her rapier [and give it +1 to hit].  Just before opening the door, Zarek, Vorgand, Jala, and Ricky took a sip from their vials of Speed Potion.

Jala threw open the door.  Vorgand rushed into the room, striking and destroying the black gem on the first skeleton’s forehead.  That skeleton slashed at by the skeleton she attacked to minimal effect.  The other skeleton fired an Arcane Burst at Jala and hit her twice, once in the arm and once in the hand.  Luckily neither did much damage to her.  The battle was on after that.

Most of the group concentrated their attacks on the first skeleton.  Vorgand’s rapier barely damaged it if she did any damage at all, but she did shatter the gem on the second skeleton.  Jala fled the room to the kitchen area and used Shadow Veil to observe the fight, ready to pull out anyone who became unconscious.

Ricky instead used his Tricky Ricky spell to turn invisible and then shadow-stepped into the room.  Once there, he cast Dark Leaching on the back skeleton, draining it of substance.  The skeleton turned to cast at Ricky!  Ricky assumed it would use an area effect attack and dove for cover next to it, trusting his invisibility to keep him safe.  It didn’t work.

Ricky was not fast enough to get out of the way [failed his DEX check at -1 to dive for cover] and was hit twice by an Arcane Burst attack.  Ricky learned that the skeletons did not use vision to “see” their targets.  Ricky fled the room by stepping through the shadow under the desk.

Meanwhile, Zarek and Clarence peppered the first skeleton with magic spells for some effect.  They were next to each other due to the confined space in the office, so the skeleton attacked them both with an Arcane Blast.  Zarek dove away but Clarence was hit and stunned from the attack.

Nick moved into the room and used the Wand of Wind to grab the skeleton and hold it in place so the others could hit it.  It broke free a couple of times, but Nick was able to re-grab it, allowing Zarek to hit it repeatedly and keeping the skeleton from attacking the other spellcasters.  Vorgand used a martial maneuver with her rapier to damage the skeleton and put it on the floor.  She did no damage and it just attacked Ricky again from the floor.

Watching the fight from the kitchen area, Jala was able to observe the fight without being in it and gained an insight.  She spoke through the Earrings of Communications the Delvers all wore, “Strike it with blunt surfaces, not your blade!”  Zarek changed his spell and attacked the first skeleton, finally shattering it.  Vorgand decided to try Jala’s suggestion and attacked the last skeleton with the pommel of her sword instead of the blade.  She shattered the skeleton, ending its existence.

Jala pulled out her notebook and wrote down everything she had about the Black Gem Skeletons.

End of Session

[I borrowed the Black Gem Skeletons from Barrowmaze, which has an excellent selection of skeleton variants so every fight with skeletons is not the same.  I gave these two different attacks, one a Burst Fire attack and one an Area of Effect (One Hex) attack.  Replicating the gems in their heads was a slightly different matter.  In D&D terms, the gems have a higher AC than the skeleton and can take a certain amount of damage.  For Hero System, I gave them the -8 to hit modifier for a called shot and made them Fragile, Obvious Inaccessible Foci.  The issue with Fragile is that they only have 1 DEF and break immediately upon being hit.  This is too fragile, but with the healing power in the gem, without Fragile they would have had a 20 DEF and the players would never be able to break them.  So either too much DEF or nowhere near enough.  I’ll have to come up with something halfway.  Also, I should have invoked the additional -2 for targeting a focus, but I was concerned they’d never hit the things.  I forgot how much OCV Vorgand has now – she could pretty much hit them nearly at will.]

Delvers Guild

Session A, Character Creation Part 1

Session B, Character Creation Part 2

Session 01

…

Session 10

…

Session 20

Session 21

Session 22

Session 23

Session 24

Session 25

Guild Organizational Outline

Session 26

Session 27

Session 29

Delvers Guild – Session 25 – To the Moon!

[November 16th – An accounting of the behir treasure and then…to the Moon!]

[This game uses the Fifth Revised Edition of the Hero System rules along with the Fantasy Hero supplement.  This session happened October 5, 2020.]

Player Characters:

Jala – human female – a person of discretion, studying aspects of the Law [to avoid them] at the Dusk Academy

Ricky the Astrologer – human male – has a thirst for knowledge but doesn’t know what he’s searching for, currently studying Astrology at Monarch University

Zarek the Red – fox male – a cerebrally-unfettered spell researcher [read: Mad Scientist] turned into a talking fox, studying Natural Philosophy at Monarch University to find a way to become human again

Vorgand – human female – professional porter and Adventurer’s Aide, irregularly attends classes at The Tested military academy, practitioner of Steel Serpent martial arts, and Guildmaster of the Delvers Guild

Via Roll20

Clarence – human male – studies Religion in Temples district, coincidentally the group healer

Nick Stalwart – human male – part of the Stalwart family of merchants, studying Mathematics at The Interesting Institute of Profitable People, a college at Monarch University

Non-Player Characters:

Torsten, Fish, Harek – ex-bandits, now The Torchbearers for the Delvers Guild

Konrad Moonclub – Stalwart family factor in Little Wytheford

Orm Oxdriver – driver of the guild’s over-sized, double-decker vardo

Yggsday, November 16th, 1st year of the reign of King Vladik the Gamesman

Noon

After a quick lunch, the Delvers set to counting and identifying the treasure they had just stolen from the behir.  It took them an hour to count the coins and assess the other items.  While they were doing this, they discussed how they wanted to organize the guild.  They discussed seniority levels, the requirements and responsibilities of those levels, how expedition shares would be done, and how to test applicants.  [I’ll post their rough draft as a blog entry on Thursday.]

The short version of the treasure:

• 20,000 gold coins
• 1,1600 platinum coins
• 11 pieces of elven art, average value of 2000 gold coins each
• A jade ring, an Adarcer scepter, a set of gold Earrings of Communication, a mithril set of Earrings of Communication
• 26 gems of various types ranging in value from 50 gold coins to 1000 gold coins
• 20 gold ingots worth 500 gold coins each
• Sash of Valiance [magic item]
• Rope of Entanglement [magic item]
• Skygazer Mirror [magic item]

After sorting and counting the treasure, the magic items were identified and parceled out.  The mithril Earrings of Communication seemed to have an additional function that the gold ones do not have, but it seemed to require a trigger, so Zarek could not work out what the function was.  Vorgand claimed the mithril earrings, giving her gold ones to Zarek while Nick got the “new” pair.  All of the Delvers now had a pair of the magic earrings and can explore areas without breathable air [secondary function of the earrings – self-contained breathing].  Vorgand also ended up with the Sash of Valiance [+5 STR with weapons only, +5 PRE, +1 level with any weapon].  Jala claimed the Rope of Entanglement [5d6, 5 DEF Entangle (Area of effect-5” Radius, Selective; Does not block attacks, Cannot form barriers, Does not prevent use of Accessible Foci)] as all agreed she would make best use of it.  Ricky claimed the Skygazer Mirror to common accord [Detect Weather, Discriminatory, +3 if outside].

The Delvers decided that it would draw too much attention if they tried to haul all the loot back to town as is.  They needed to get containers they could pack things in and lock or secure somehow so none of it was stolen in transit.  In the meantime, they decided to store it all on the moon where only they could get ahold of it.

Zarek powered up the portal and set the control cubes to the moon.  The Delvers picked up as much of the treasure as they could carry [Nick using the Wand of Winds to move one of the laden chests as well] and lumbered through the portal to the moon.  The moon rocks the gate area was covered with crunched deeply as they slowly walked over to the nearby structure.

[NOTE: This is different from how the moon gate arrival area was described in Session 11 as the gate is no longer inside the structure but in a courtyard area in front of the structure.  This happened because I didn’t read my old notes closely enough after the time spent playing the Shattered Star Adventure Path, Book 1.  This revised description is canon as the moon gravel being inside the structure makes no sense to me now.  Also, please note the moon has gravity equal to the campaign world because fantasy game.]

Vorgand ducked back to the Moon Manor side of the portal and took a torch from one of the Torchbearers.  She walked through with the torch lit.  Once on the moon side, the flames nearly died immediately, flickered for a couple of seconds, and then died completely, giving off a thin stream of smoke.  The air the magic earrings provided did not include the torch, which was good to know.

Clarence cast Sense the Unholy and detected three shadow types and two skeleton types of undead.  The shadows seemed to be in a part of the structure off to the left and the skeletons in the far chamber.  Clarence recalled that the area to the left was behind a jammed door and the far chamber was a living area of some sort [and source of the couch the Delvers made use of in the portal room].  Clarence shared all this information with the rest of the group.

Vorgand wanted to clear out the undead to make exploring safer.  She had the other delvers wait and walked a circuit around the structure to see if there was more than one entrance, particularly to see if there was a direct entrance to the room with the skeletons.  She walked around the X-shaped building to the right [counter-clockwise].  There were no additional doors on the ends of the garden supply room [as identified by Jala and Clarence] nor the living quarters [where the skeletons were].  The last part of the structure [where the shadows were] had a large set of doors that looked like they slid into each other [hangar-style doors].  She relayed this to the rest of the group and finished her circuit around the structure.

Jala pulled out a control card and opened the entrance to the X-shaped structure.  There was a small vestibule with a second door inside.  The Delvers had seen this setup before and piled in.  Jala closed the outer door and opened the inner door [which would not have opened if the outer door was still open].  The Delvers staggered into the first room and started setting down the treasure they were carrying next to the raised boxes holding dead plant beds.  They spent the next ten minutes ferrying the rest of the treasure from the Moon Manor portal room to this room.

Nick and Zarek changed their spells to effect incorporeal things so they could handle the shadows.  [Which would have worked in D&D, but in Fantasy HERO shadows are not default incorporeal, something I missed initially when Clarence made his skill check.]  The group then opened the doorway out of the room, which was another airlock, and entered the central hub room of the structure.  This room was circular with four airlock-style doors equally spaced around the room.  There were raised plant beds against the wall between the doors with no living plants in them.  Vorgand attempted to light the torch to see if the interior of the structure held breathable air being kept in by the airlocks.  The torch burned feebly for a bit and then went out.  The Delvers were disappointed.

The group attempted to open the door to their left, to the room with the shadows.  The door moved slightly but would not open.  At first the Delvers were puzzled, but then realized this meant that the other door of the airlock was stuck open and this door could not open.  Jala pulled down her shadow veil from inside her hood and peered through the shadows inside the airlock.  She could see the interior of the airlock and a planter from the main room pulled to block the other door from closing.  She asked Ricky to shadow jump and help her move the planter so everyone could access the next room.  Ricky cast his Tricky Ricky spell, turning himself invisible, before casting his shadowwalking spell [whose name escapes me at the moment] to enter the room beyond the airlock.  Jala shadowjumped into the airlock itself.

Ricky reported the room beyond was boat storage with a single sailing ship of elven design taking up most of the room.  He then helped Jala move the planter back into the room, clearing the door to close, which it did.  Jala opened the outer door and the rest of the Delvers stepped in.  Ricky reported that the shadows were moving towards the door.  When Jala cycled the airlock doors, the shadows moved directly in front of the door and prepared to attack.

Nick cast Wave Break on himself [his force field spell].  The shadows bellowed at the Delvers [Presence attack] and made them give pause [PRE+20: loss of a phase].  Zarek and Clarence were each hit by a shadow and Clarence dropped to the floor, his life essence mostly drained away.  The third shadow sensed Ricky and was able to land a blow against the invisible mage.  [Perhaps Ricky’s use of shadow magic drew the shadow?]

Jala pushed her shadowjump spell to its limits and pulled Clarence through the shadow plane back to the central hub of the building.  She continued to watch the battle by peering through the shadows from the hub to the boat area.  The Delvers fought hard against the shadows, concentrating their attacks against one shadow at a time.  Zarek and Nick modified their spells to be more effective.  As the fight progressed, Zarek was hit a second time and went down.  Jala shadowjumped in and retrieved the fox, laying him next to the barely conscious Clarence.

Vorgand was the first of the Delvers to strike a killing blow on one of the shadows.  She yelled at the remaining two to get their attention on her and not her more-easily-hit companions [Presence attack] and was successful.  Clarence prayed to the gods for aid and receive inspiration for a new prayer.  [I allowed him to spend unspent experience points on a new spell with a successful Power roll (roll on the Power skill, which is the one required by all magic spells).]

After Dark Leeching multiple times, Ricky caused a second shadow to evaporate to nothingness.  Nick drew his Wand of Wind  and used it to temporarily hold the last shadow.  This allowed Vorgand to use her multiattack for the first time.  She put everything into the attack, hitting an astounding seven times!  This shredded the shadow to tattered pieces and it evaporated.

Vorgand pulled the airlock shut, allowing her to reopen the door back to the hub where Clarence and Zarek were feebly clinging to life.  [Clarence's new prayer was weak as he only has two saved experience point.  He was not able to get a lot of dice of Aid, but was able to keep Zarek from getting worse.]  Vorgand let them hold her sword, which started repairing the damage done by the shadow’s life draining attacks [a secondary effect of its Healing power].

End of Session

[The treasure list might seem generous to the reader, but I decided recently that this campaign is for fun and the PCs are already a bit OP, so why be stingy on the treasure?  I did choose the magic items that were there to be things the PCs would want and would survive in a desert environment.  I deselected things that the behir would not have kept around, like magic weapons that could be used to kill them and such.  The sash and rope were used as packing material for the other loot, which fit the background narrative.]

[I forgot that in the Hero System, the default is everything is corporeal unless they buy the power Desolidification as Always On and Persistent.  This is dumb and only makes sense for creatures that usually solid but have a power that lets them not be.  I think I’m going to have a default setting for all creatures that is either Corporeal or Non-corporeal as their default existence.  If they are non-corporeal, they have to spend points on advantages to effect the solid world.  Corporeal creatures must make use of the Effects Desolid. Advantage to interact with the non-corporeal.]

Delvers Guild

Session A, Character Creation Part 1

Session B, Character Creation Part 2

Session 01

…

Session 10

…

Session 20

Session 21

Session 22

Session 23

Session 24

Guild Organizational Outline

Session 26

Delvers Guild – Session 11 – The Agreement, the Moon, the Hand

[The Delvers make a deal and then start exploring through the gate.]

[This game uses the Fifth Revised Edition of the Hero System rules along with the Fantasy Hero supplement.  This session happened August 26, 2019.  Nick’s player missed this session due to work-related reasons.]

Player Characters:
Jala – human female – a person of discretion, studying aspects of the Law [to avoid them] at the Dusk Academy
Clarence – human male – studies Religion in Temples district, coincidentally the group healer
Vorgand – human female – professional porter and Adventurer’s Aide, irregularly attends classes at The Tested military academy, practitioner of Steel Serpent martial arts
Zarek the Red – fox male – a cerebrally-unfettered spell researcher [read: Mad Scientist] turned into a talking fox, studying Natural Philosophy at Monarch University to find a way to become human again
Ricky the Astrologer – human male – has a thirst for knowledge but doesn’t know what he’s searching for, currently studying Astrology at Monarch University

Non-Player Characters:
Torsten, Fish, Harek – surviving bandits and now torchbearers for the Delvers Guild

NPC’d PCs
Nick Stalwart – human male – part of the Stalwart family of merchants, studying Mathematics at The Interesting Institute of Profitable People, a college at Monarch University


Freysday, October 25th, 1st year of the reign of King Vladik the Gamesman
Approximately 10:00 AM
After defeating the four fungal brutes guarding the entrance to the lair of the fungoid people, the Delvers took their first looks around the room.  The luminescent drawings and sigils seen in the hallway were denser and partially overlapping on the walls of this room.  There were large, bulbous structures on stilts or stuck to the ceiling, including a large orange structure with an obvious entrance up in the far corner from the entrance.

The Delvers discussed what to do next for a short while.  Zarek had Clarence cast a defensive spell on him and then recast Stoney Skin to maximize his defenses.  Then Zarek floated up to the entrance of the orange-colored structure.  Inside the structure was hollow with a single fungoid sitting on what Zarek believed was a throne.  The fungoid had a bright red fungal cap and seemed to be waiting, so Zarek attempted to talk, but received no replies.

Not certain what else to do, Zarek landed in the entrance and waited.  The fungoid stood up.  When Zarek continued to wait, the fungoid slowly walked forward.  When it was close to Zarek, the fungoid released a pink spore cloud that enveloped Zarek and the fungoid.  Instead of causing vomiting and paralyzing spasms, this cloud slightly altered Zarek’s perceptions and allowed him to hear the thoughts of the fungoid leader.  Conversing mostly in emotions and images, the fungoid leader impressed upon Zarek the fungoid’s desire that the Delvers go away and not bother the fungoids.  Zarek emphasized the desire for the fungoids to not interfere with the gate room or access to it.  Both found the other’s desires acceptable and an accord was made.

Zarek floated back over to the rest of the delvers [a bit erratically as he was still tripping] and relayed what had been agreed to.  The rest of the Delvers were OK with this result as safe passage to the gate room was what they wanted.  The group of adventurers turned and left the fungoid room and went down the south corridor to the gate room.

After verifying everything was as they left it, they started experimenting with the gate’s control cubes.  They powered the gate with one of the power gems and then waited.  The gate opened to a completely dark area.  After about a minute it switched to a different location.  A minute later it did so again.  The Delvers decided that powering the gate but not using the location cubes set it to randomly cycle to other locations.

Ricky inserted the first cube with the same setting Hefhauer had used [see Session 8], which caused the gate to open on the complete darkness.  Zarek borrowed a torch from Fish and stuck it through the gate.  The flame disappeared and provided no illumination to whatever was beyond.  When Zarek pulled the torch back, it was still lit.

Ricky left the gate alone long enough to verify that it would not randomly cycle while a cube was plugged in and then rotated it to the different facings to see where the gate opened for each.  The Delvers observed:

1. Several raised plant beds full of dead plants on a floor of grey gravel.  In the short distances is a short cliff of grey stone.  The sky beyond is black and full of starts like a night sky, but there is clearly daylight illuminating everything.  Ricky recognized the stars but would not expect to see them in the night sky for several months, which is peculiar.
2. A large cave, partially lit by sunlight.  When Zarek went through, it had the musty smell that made him very uncomfortable.
3. A small room with stone walls.
4. A room that was completely submerged in water with a few small fish swimming in it.
5. Ruins of a city with lots of sand everywhere.  Ricky believed it to be the ruins of the city of Labdah, located a week or two across the Serpent Sea to the south.
6. The completely dark location.

After some discussion, the Delvers suspected that the first gate location was on the moon and wanted to verify that.  Vorgand decided she would go through first as the guild leader.  Ricky switched the control cube to its first setting and the gate opened to the same set of dead gardens.  Vorgand stepped through the gate and found herself inside a structure with mostly transparent walls and ceiling.  She had a moment where she couldn’t breathe very well and then it passed and she could breathe fine.  The ground was gravelly and crunched under her feet.  There was a faint scent of exploded fireworks but no obvious source.

Seeing Vorgand having no issues, Zarek floated through the gate next.  He had trouble taking deep breathes immediately and was forced to dive back through the portal quickly so he could breathe again.  One by one each of the Delvers stepped through and had the same problem, except for Jala.  They quickly realized the communication ear rings both were wearing also provided air for them to breathe.  Vorgand returned through the gate and handed her ear rings to Clarence to wear and then he stepped through.  He had no trouble breathing this time, which confirmed the ear rings allowed breathing.

Clarence and Jala explored the structure the gate was in.  There were two airlock doors at opposite ends of the room – one lead outside the building, the other into a domed hub that connected to three other chambers, those having opaque walls.  Clarence and Jala selected the airlock doors leading to the hub room.  It had no door knob, but there was a glass panel on the wall beside the door.  Having seen something similar, Jala pulled out the key she had from the Moon Manor ruins and tried it.  The key opened the airlock door and she and Clarence went through.  The inner door had a button that closed the outer door and opened the inner door to the hub room.

The hub room had three other airlock doors, each with a button to open it.  There were also large planters along the walls between the doors, all full of dead plants.  The door on left trembled a bit when the button was pushed, but then failed to open.  The door across opened to a living area and kitchen with many plant holders, all dead.  There was hallway to one side with a door to some back areas and stairs down to a lower area.  Jala wanted very much to explore those areas, but Clarence advocated checking the other airlock in the hub first and then returning to report what they had found.  Jala relented [she made her EGO roll to resist her Curious disadvantage].

The last chamber was a storage area, but this time the shelves were full.  There were canvas bags of soil and seeds, three chests of gardening tools, there were worktables along the walls, empty sprinkler buckets, and a large metal tank, probably of water but Clarence could not read the writing on anything.  There were also planters of dead plants.

After some discussion, the two decided to grab the four wooden chairs in the kitchen area and the couch in the living area and haul those back to the gate as loot.  When they returned through the gate with their furniture-loot, the relayed what they had found.  Wanting to explore further but with no way to breathe on the moon without the magic ear rings, the Delvers decided to explore some of the other areas to see if they could find more of the magical ear rings.

The next gate location was the giant cave that made Zarek nervous, so they skipped that and went to the next setting, which was the small room.  Jala went through first and reported through the communication ear rings that the room was just large enough to hold the gate on this end and had a single locked door.  She checked the cabinet in the control pedestal for the gate and found three location cubes and a de-powered power gem, which she took.  She then went to the locked door and oiled the hinges and the lock mechanisms before unlocking it.  While she was doing that, the rest of the Delvers came through, leaving Nick and Harek watching their end of the gate.

Beyond the door was a series of four empty rooms.  All the rooms showed signs of being periodically occupied, but not recently.  The third room had a metal ladder embedded in the wall that went up and down to different levels.  The Delvers first went up.  The room they entered had two doors, one of which showed sunlight around it.  Once all the Delvers had climbed up, the door outside was opened.  It opened onto a ledge that provided access to what appeared to be a cave in a narrow stone cliff.  Zarek floated out and look around and realized the structure they were in was an immense stone hand and the “narrow cliff” was the hand’s thumb!  [See The Stone Sinister by Dyson Logos for details.]

Ricky recognized where they were – it was a famous ruin far to the north of Aegea City but only a week or so west of the Duchy of Aerik and Barrowmaze.  The swamps it was in were different from the Barrowmoors but were drained by a different branch of the same river.  Vorgand was pleased to discover this as it would shorten her trip back north in the spring considerably.

The Delvers explored the rest of the giant hand, finding it currently empty of occupants and treasure.  Jala wanted to use it as the guild house, but the others were not as enthused about its swamp location and she was voted down.  The Delvers returned to the small gate room, closing and relocking the door.  They then went through the gate back to where Nick and Harek were lounging on the lunar couch.

End of Session

[In hindsight, the gunpowder smell on the moon was a marginal mistake on my part.  While actual lunar soil has that smell (as reported by astronauts who landed on the moon) it breaks down upon contact with air and moisture and loses the scent after a couple of days.  The gravel inside the building would have been exposed to air and moisture in the past and probably lost the scent already.  It might have come back after being airless for hundreds of years, but that is speculation as scientists do not know what causes the scent to begin with.  See the July 2019 issue of Smithsonian magazine for more information.]

[The description for the Stone Sinister exploration was short as I forgot to stock it before play.  I will go back and do that, having some locals pick it up as a refuge from storm flooding so there will be something there when/if the PCs return.  It is a location that favors temporary encampments by various groups, so that will work well.]



Delvers Guild
Session A, Character Creation Part 1
Session B, Character Creation Part 2
Session 01
Session 02
Session 03, Part 1
Session 03, Part 2
Session 04
Session 05
Session 06
Session 07
Session 08
Session 09
Session 10


Session 12