Soloing Arden Vul- Double Delve Whammy
The Third Misadventure
Played:
Dramatis personae
- Abraham, Cleric 1
- Boris, MU 1
- Clint, MU 1
- Edgar, FM 1
- Ferdinand, MU 1
- Graham, FM 1
- Huey, FM 1
The Plan
Last time, they found a secret door in the ruined basement (AV-18). They intend to go and check that out. Everyone's feeling good again, so they're going in fresh.
The Action
The party quickly scrambles back over to the hidden cellar (AV-18). The day is overcast, but they hear the rumbling in the west on the other side of the lake, though they get there unmolested. The statues are still there, and they decide not to deal with them for now. They can always do so on the way back. They open the door and go down a long staircase…
The party enters a cluttered laboratory (2-23). They start searching around when they hear creaking behind them and boris is knocked to the floor. Abraham and graham also get badly hurt, but they manage to retreat back into the secret door. They hear the animated statue slam is shut. They manage to stabilize boris, who's bleeding badly from his head.
Dragging the unconscious party member up the stairs is a slow and arduous process that takes most of an hour. Once up there, they rest.
Around lunchtime they re-enter the inn. Kronos all but laughs in their face. Estelle tells them that for a small fee she'll be able to apply some healing. The head wound looks bad, and Boris has been lolling and raving as they dragged him back here. Graham is also not looking too great. He can move, but he has received a nasty blow from the spear and doesn't seem to be all there. Estelle's magic doesn't come cheap though… They'll have to tally their gold and see what can be done.
The Fourth and First Proper Delve
Played:
Dramatis personae
- Abraham, Cleric 1
- Boris, MU 1
- Clint, MU 1
- Edgar, FM 1
- Ferdinand, MU 1
- Graham, FM 1
- Huey, FM 1
Before they set out,
On the fourth day Boris wakes. Abraham has also been feeling better, but Graham's still not doing well. The party decides to fork over the Jewelry they found in the basement, as well as Dick's and Graham's gold to get her to cast a spell to cure his double vision.
The last expedition worked out extremely badly. They need a better plan. They decide after talking to Kronos and Estelle that the Halflings have such a good deal ebcause most of the treasure found is behind those bastards. They decide it's probably best to pony up the cost and go back down there…
Activities
Unaccosted, they move to the pyramid and down the stairs to the room of the halflings (3-2). They pay the 10 gold.
Decision
- 1-2: Do they go back down the ways they explored before (up north and west towards where the rats took Huey,
- 3-4: Do they go directly west
- 5-6: do they go south?
3 They decide to go west. The rats are still fresh in their mind, and they'd rather get a good feel of the scale and scope of this floor.
The party sees a large statue of Toth in the middle of an intersection (3-15). Cognisant of that the last time, they look over the statue and find that this statue also has arms that are movable. They remember the frescoes at the pyramid. One showed the Ibis-headed god pointing one hand down and one at a bowing human in front of him. They set the arms to this position, and hear a clunk, but nothing else seems to happen. They attempt another arm position, and a pit to the north of the statue opens. No one was standing on that spot, but it gives them pause. They decide to not fiddle with the statue any more. They find it odd how the intersection stops to the west suddenly. They search the space but cannot find anything suspicious there. Maybe it was unfinished?
They go south and end up in an eerily familiar hallway (AV-16). They are ready this time though. Clint and boris both grab a flask of oil. They throw a stone into the darkness and hear the squeaks of 9 giant rats leaping and then being confused and surprised. Two flasks of oil is thrown at the group, followed by a torch. Four rats burn up instantly in the fire, and the rest flee. They wait for the blaze to die down and search about. In a pile of refuse, they find valuables. Boris also picks up a torch, which ignites when it enters his hand with a black light, and he finds he cannot drop it…
They rest and then search the rest of the circular hallway, finding some more minor valuables.
They go north, not wanting to show the halflings what they found just yet. They'd already been north here (3-18), where they found the feathers. Now they decide to go west. A corpse lies in the hallway (3-20). They move on to an area with portcullises and stairs moving up and levers in the centre of the room (3-21).
Decision
- 1-2: Bottom lever
- 3-4: Middle
- 5-6: Top lever
- 7-8: Maybe let's not go into the tombs with undead imagery all plastered on it shall we
They decide to pull the middle lever which crunches and then opens. The party explore the vast catacombs (3-22), sidetracking and getting lost until they hear clattering and see 4 zombies rising up. They start to withdraw from the zombies, not wishing to fight if they don't have to, when they suddenly see them slowly start to float up in the air and a sizzling can be seen in the weak light. They flee even faster as they hear more and more clattering behind them until they reach the gate. They pull the lever to its down position and the gate crashes shut behind them.
They rest a turn as they go over the map they made. It seems like the bottom corridor doesn't really connect to anything else they have seen so far in the catacombs. They make a note, but since they have apparently riled up the undead they decide to leave it alone for now. They decide to move back. To the south in the rat-halls there were was another door they skipped. They move there and are greeted by the sound of a magic mouth shouting in a language they do not understand. They move away from it to the south into a room with greenish mist and a pyramid. On top, they find a stage with in the middle a grey bar with an obsidian knob. It seems to be able to move.
As much as this seems interesting, they decide to first scope out the place some more, making a note on their map to return here later. They move back into the hall, past two magic mouths both making a tremendous noise until they are out of range. The place has continual light cast on it, and has a vast poor in the middle, which smells foul and is sludgy brown in colour (3-10). They decide not to drink from it, though they stick a torch in it and find it's not caustic. They move to the back of the room and rest for a turn.
:3_8:3_9:3_69:3_12:
As they go further east they enter a hallway, and then south east. A stair leads down east, and the hallway continues further in the same direction. They go down the hallway to a door. They listen at it but hear nothing. They open it and find a room full of dusty old robes (3-8). They leave the room and go south-east. A layer of green mist covers the floor, and n the centre of a sunken area is a single onyx pillar. The mist and the size of the room makes it hard to find anything of import. They see text in a language they cannot read.
They move back north and west to the door between the magic mouthes they passed before. A room which has a crudely made barrier across the entirely breadth. A rotting halfling head is impaled on the a stick on the barrier. They decide very much so they'd rather not return here, and whatever is in there to not come out, so they spike the door shut behind them.
The party expects that to the north of here they'll find the hall of the halflings. They decide to make sure. They stop at the intersection where a large fresco of a baboon (3-12). It feels out of place and they investigate, finding that there's a concealed door here. They quickly go north, confirming that the halfling hallway is up there, before making a choice.
Decision
It's nearing on 14:00. They have a decent bit of loot, though also room for more.
- 1-2: go down the secret door. Secret doors always have treasure
- 3-4: That pyramid was widly interesting. Go there.
- 5: Surely the undead have become quiet by now. We can see what's there
- 6: Let's be safe and smart and return tomorrow well-rested.
3
They move to the top of the pyramid, and press down on the plunger.
The party finds themselves wreathed in smoke, but when it clears they find the plunger to be gone, as well as the smoke on the floor (2-8).They don't know what else changed, so they move out into the hallway, and see it goes in an entirely different direction.
They read a warning on the wall of a room(2-7); "They are deterred by light. We should restore the well". They take heed, though they have no clue what it means, and go out into a hall full of mirrors (2-6). They check one room (2-1), move past another because of concerning sounds (2-12) and as they continue down the hall hear the screeching and hooting of baboons.
The party retreats down the hallway, seeing a group of white baboons run towards them. Clint chucks another flask oil on the floor and a torch is thrown in. The monkeys stop in front of the flames and hoot and holler as the party runs away south down the hall they came from. The party enters a room and the cursed torch goes out. Monkeys come to a halt at the front of the door and growl, but dare not enter. They hoot and holler until Egar throws a rock, and with a snarl they move away.
They look about the room (2-10) and see three statues of mouths and an ibis fresco. The mouths are dark. They stick unlit torches in the two on the sides, which disappear. The middle one does not. They decide to risk it, before the monkeys return with more friends. They go into the mouth and enter a long tunnel with a staircase.
They go further down, to a large room, ibis symbology and a man floating in a stream of light (3-118). After some arguing they decide not to pull him out of that stream of light, not knowing what would happen. Instead they check the next room and find a mildewed chamber with a basin (3-119). Abraham decides to drink from it. It's all Toth, and Toth was a good of wisdom and knowledge. Surely he'd do a good person like him no harm. He becomes a lot prettier. Boris and clint drink too, and both become a bit wiser. However, Dick seems to become clumsy and frail, and Edgar and Graham dare not trust the fountain after seeing that.
They'd hoped they'd gotten away from the baboons, but it seems like they do need to go back up there. They go back up the stairs and rest a bit for the frail Dick before going out the mouth. The baboons seem to be gone, though they know not where.
They see a few options…
decision
- 1-2: Go back north, hoping the baboons have gone.
- 3-6: go east into the unknown.
4
They decide to go east. They see daylight, and a shaft studded with mirrors (2-1). This must lead outside. Could this be the well the text spoke of? Before they can investigate however, they hear screams from the north. They quickly move south, where a narrow hall branches off from the corridor. They go in, and find two doors.
They decide to go into the southern one. The room is empty of inhabitants. but it stinks of monkey (2-67). They also find two books of recipes which they take with them, and a large knife of intricate make. The eastern door leads into a kitchen (2-65), and see three forms currently bound up in a corner and three goblins huddling under a table. They look at the party and say "Yrsko will get you!". Graham puts his hands over a mouth that's about to scream and threatens them to stay quiet unless they want their throats cut. They stay silent.
They release the three prisoners, a caveman, a beastman and a human. Only the human speaks Archontean and tells them of the 4-armed apes, the baboons and the druid controlling them. They need to get out of here, the human says.
They move to the northern half of the kitchen (2-64). The fireplace is not currently lit, and when Boris looks up he sees a shaft of light far up.
Decision They need to get out… The caveman and the beastmen don't speak their language, and Ketil, the human, came in from places unfamiliar to the party, and was dragged here unconscious, so he does not know the route.
Do they:
- 1-3 Attempt the climb up this long chimney? They have rope and spikes…
- 4-5 Find a safer route. Boris only has use of one hand, and that beastmen is missing a whole arm. Explore the uncknown and see what we find
- 6 With this larger group attempt to go past the six apes. Desperate move though. These new guys don't look very healthy...…
3
They tie ropes and lash people together in two groups of five, weakest people in the middle. The first group goes well, but the second is slower and has issues making way, until they hear distant hooting of baboons and the yapping of goblins. This gets them going. They are exhausted by the time they come up. Their used up all pitons and left them in place as anchors. The beastman and the caveman look around and sprint off, but Ketil agrees to join the group for now. He owes them a debt.
The party plus Ketil eventually make it back to the inn.
Experience and treasure
| 4 1 HD rats | 400 |
|---|---|
| 459 SP | 49 |
| 4 citrines (50 gp EA) | 200 |
| Large pearl (500GP) | 500 |
| 2 Aquamarines (100gp ea) | 200 |
| Lapis Lazuli (???) | 50 |
| Gold ring 500 GP | 500 |
| Cursed Blacklight Torch (Boris) | 0 |
| Ancient signet ring | 50 |
| Bronze tablet | 10 |
| 16GP | 16 |
| Pot invis | 250 |
| Pot dim. | 250 |
| White activation square | 0 |
| Potion of clarity | 250 |
| Fine longsword (35gp) | 35 |
| Courtship of Julius the Exarch | 60 |
| Book of recipes | 40 |
| Book of "recipes" | 0 |
| +1 dagger | 1000 |
| The new fren Ketil | invaluable |
| total | 3860 |
| per person | 643.33333 |
AAR
Finally some decent loot, and no one died. Furthermore, they made a new friend, who, based on his reaction roll, might become a new full addition to the party. He's higher level than them, so he won't stoop to being a retainer, but that's fine. We'll see how he does. No one levelled just yet, but we're getting close. Maybe next time.
So until them, count your torches and keep mapping.