Open Table Session Report (#19) - Breaking and Entering, Witch House Style
Player Characters
Balgor Mountainkin (Dwarf 1), accompanied by a medium footman.
Helios (Elf 1)
Poppy Tumbletop (Halfling 1), accompanied by a heavy footman.
Robin Redwood (Magic-User 3)
Wynn (Cleric 3)
Prep
No change in the dungeon, I didn't have time to do dungeon downtime! Poppy hired a heavy footman (50sp), Balgor added a spike to his shield (7sp), took a spider gland to an alchemist and distilled antivenom (100sp), and hired a medium footman (30sp)
Robin was elected Captain of the delve. Poppy took on mapping duties. Balgor acted as Quartermaster.
The party chose to visit Pada's home in the eastern gatehouse in search of her grimoire, with finding a staircase down from the first level to the second as a secondary goal.
Events
The party cautiously approached the eastern gatehouse in Whiterock town, noticing no obvious signs of activity. A flourishing herb garden ran down the length of the wall - Helios and Robin both studied it, detecting a current of life and death magic flowing through the area - the magic seemed different from the style they were used to.
The party knocked at the door and entered when they received no answer. A cosy kitchen lay within, a pot of rich stew simmering above a hearthfire not long burned out. A small black cat sat in a rocking chair before the remains of the fire, watching them impassively. It gratefully received some cheese. A seeming cookbook lay on the table but was inscribed with a strange language that none of them spoke, the margins illustrated with vivid and disturbing images. The party searched the place, finding the upstairs abandoned. The cat hissed whenever one of them stood on the rug in front of the hearth and they threw it back, revealing a trapdoor - the cat fled outside. Wynn left a note stating that they sought an audience with Pada.
Helios and Poppy both tried some of the stew - it tasted delicious, with some kind of pork in the mix. Meanwhile, the others heard faint whispers through the trapdoor and felt a subtle vibration in it. Throwing it open released a gust of cool air carrying the rich scent of the forest floor. Descending down a ladder led them to a dug-out cellar with great roots twined in the walls and humanoid remains littering the floor. Jugs and bottles lay on shelves around the walls and a particularly thick taproot held what appeared to be a suit of red, gory armour in a crevice of red moss, and a shining sword wrapped in thick black thorns. A nearby table bore an alembic, retort, and other alchemical tools as well as a series of unfinished inscribed bones in the process of being strung together with gut and sinew.
Wynn took a rubbing of the carved bones. Robin detected a magical ward set on the room, which had been tripped, and several bottles also detected as magical. Balgor found a strange rock while searching which turned out to be a chest wrapped in an illusion - within lay 523sp in mixed coinage, some quite ancient, that the party took. Wynn took a magical bottle. Helios and Poppy investigated the sword and armour - the thorns twitched when their torch came close so they left the sword, but Poppy hooked her grappling hook into the armour, welling blood around it. As they ascended, she reeled the hook in and took the armour as a torrent of blood burst over the floor of the room. Upstairs, the party took the 'cookbook' but forgot about their note.
They deposited their gains at the Market Hall and delved quickly into the caverns. Following directions previously given to them by a Black Talon, they came to a door through which they heard fluttering and squeaking. They burst through into a high circular room filled with guano. Having the element of surprise, they rushed past several giant bats and burst through a door to the NW, finding themselves trapped at a dead end in a room full of dusty shed cocoons.
Turning to fight, they exterminated the group of 10 bats with minimal injury to themselves, collected some guano, and left.
Outcomes
Treasure retrieved: 523sp | 43sp half-share, 87sp share
Combat XP: 200XP | 40XP each
Feats of Exploration:
Uncover additional information about a lead, or open a new lead ('Pada has a mysterious den under the gatehouse') (2%)
Confirm a rumour's veracity (Pada is not a kindly old sort) (2%)
Discover a secret (Pada's cellar) (2%)
Total: 127XP + 6% required for next level, plus bonuses for player roles.
Thoughts
This session was equal parts chaotic and methodical, which was a good mix. Happily confirmed that two of my players are, indeed, goo drinkers - both failed a save vs Spells so there will be consequences for eating the mystery meat stew. I love that they forgot to collect the note they had place announcing their presence. It'll be interesting when they encounter Pada in Whiterock. The party has an interesting trait of only collecting treasure by halves - they did it before when they were in the Minotaur's lair surrounded by silver but only took a bit of it, same with the sword here. They're getting better at fighting, too, forming up into a chokepoint and methodically working through their foes - there was a bit of dithering here and there but I forced the issue by setting a time limit and we got the fight done reasonably quickly.
I'm getting really sick of dividing XP shares out. I think in future games I'll just share the XP evenly, we only meet once a week for a couple of hours so a slightly enhanced pace of advancement is fine in my book. I like the Feats of Exploration but they just add more maths to do at wrapping up, so I think I'd just set a static XP value for secrets discovered, traps evaded etc.