Caverns of Thracia - Delve 17: Sushi Chefs Extraordinaire
Players
Players & Characters
Referee - Sully
Bomb, Halfling Fighter 4 - Me!
Dina, Human Cleric 2 - Al
Snubrash, Half-Orc Ranger 2 - Tor
Zema-Zafat, Halfling Wizard 5 - laumry
Orkhon, Human Fighter 2 - Kut
Xaayr, Human Fighter 1 - Iniquitous
Events
Back out on the trail again. Feels good, even if we ran into that weird tentacle-faced fellow on our last jaunt overland. The others have been checking out an old fortress overlooking the sea and that's where we're headed.
It were a good day for travel. The sun was shining and we managed to grab some grub (literally) to eat while trekking through the jungle. Eventually we made it out to the coast and spotted some of Poseidon's children in the bay below. You hear queer things about them on the ships, but they seemed friendly enough. Their leader told us that they were hunting a giant octopus - probably the one which gobbled down that thieving priest last week - and asked us to call them on a big shell they handed to Zema-Zafat. Before them swam off we were able to ask them a few questions: the big manta ray nearby was friendly, they told us, but he didn't understand we needed air and so would happily drown us by diving down; apparently the whirlpool we saw the lizardfolk diving into might lead to a temple to Poseidon, but we'd need some way of breathing underwater; and the shipwreck those harpies lingered over ran aground after some snake-bodied creature with burning eyes broke free and lit it aflame.
We left the mer to their business and set up camp as the light faded. I took the first watch and heard thrashing in the water - by the light of the moon I saw the mer at their quarry and wasted no time in grabbing the conch from ZZ and blowing it. The seafolk hurried in, having already wounded the beast, and with our aid (besides Orkhon, the lazy git) they slew it, leaving us a fine tentacle as thanks. We think we might go into the seafood business back in Minos.
The next day we finished the last stretch to the fort, a fine old sandstone structure overlooking the sea. The others mentioned that they'd faced off a Minotaur here before, as well as some disgusting spider-men things. We paced through rooms of bull god murals, red pillars, and bull statues (a bit one note if I'm honest), until we found a chamber full of webbed bodies and something that looked like a dancing black robe, like what we found past the Gates of Death in those accursed caverns.
We lit the thing on fire with a flask of oil and searched the webbed bodies - beastfolk all - finding a pearl in the mouth of one. Not sure what he was hoping to achieve. A room beyond held a skeleton pinned to one wall with a bronze spear - ZZ sniffed the magic coming off of it and we smashed the skeleton to pieces. Damn thing tried to come at us but we know better than that. Snubrash took the spear, suits him well. It was marked with the insignia of Apollo.
We ventured back to the west, passing through a great offering room. We'll need to bring some grain with us to try filling these huge bowls up with. Heading north, we came to a door we knew led to an open courtyard - we could hear something big snorting and stamping within.
Xaayr took the lead and kicked the door in and ZZ hurled a fireball right at the blood-red minotaur stood within the room. Going to have to watch the little oddball, he made a right mess of the brute. We followed up with javelins and arrows, attempting to lure the thing back to the passageway we had entered. He was quick, but clumsy, and charged headlong into a pillar and caught his horns there. I took my chance and with a single blow clove his bovine head from his shoulders.
Taking stock of the bone-strewn chamber, I scooped up the big bronze axe the beast wielded - something magical coursed through it, a power to be sure. We picked over the rest of the room, finding a great haul of treasure: I claimed a fin mithril shield to complement the axe and we also found a fine silver longsword and some scroll of magic gobble-de-gook that ZZ found immensely interesting. There was a great black bull statue at the far end of the hall with skulls rammed on to its horns. Xaayr, possessed by some madness, took the minotaur's head and added it to the collection, sprouting horns of his own. I know not what malady afflicts him but I'll be watching the fellow.
With that, we found our way to a northern exit and made our way back to Minos. On our return journey we gathered a great number of fish during our travel along the coasts - Minos will eat well of the sea!
Thoughts
Another great session - it feels like we're hitting a good power level now where we can take on some real meaty foes. I've not been able to play for a few weeks so it was good getting back into things - the party elected me as Caller for the session and I think I did a good job keeping things moving.
We finally have some magic weapons! We've been playing for like 5 months at this point so it's good to have some additional firepower against stronger undead and the like.
I'm still not sold on Shadowdark as a system. It's fine, but I've found myself moving away from systems that assign huge importance to attributes. I rolled a character who was really only viable as a Fighter but I have no STR bonus - it feels weird to be attacking with less chance to hit than a 2nd-level Fighter with a +4 STR modifier. Still, it keeps itself out of the way enough that I can't complain. Looking forward to breaking out the new axe in anger!