Tomb of The Serpent Kings Part 5

[DM Note: the entire party is 2nd level now and they have two NPCs in tow: Kip and Marvolo the Mage.]

 Returning to the Tomb of The Serpent Kings, the party reentered the dungeon via the dirt-encrusted stairs under the roots of a tree (41: Staircase to The Surface). Maul lead the party back to the landing on which he and Haco had fought their first group of goblins the week before and put Ramen to work on opening 40: Secret Passage. As the Specialist worked she could clearly hear the sound of a heavy chain being dragged across dusty stone on the other side of the door, but the party voted to proceed anyway.

The far walls of 38. Basilisk Chamber beyond the secret door were lost in the gloom beyond the party’s lantern light. They could see a few broken pillars and noted that the floor was littered with broken but extremely lifelike statues of rats and bats. The rasping of heavy chain links was much clearer now, though no one could determine the direction or distance. Kip, the young peasant girl the party had hired to carry their lightsource, let out a frightened “Eep!” And the sound of chains in the dark suddenly stopped. 

Moving quickly, Ramen, with Kip in tow, lead the party eastward keeping hard against the south wall. Several more broken pillars and a hallway leading east appeared in the lantern’s warm light. The party was strung out in a long line with Maul bringing up the rear from beyond the lantern’s light so that his darkvision could be put to best use. Away from the lightsource the dwarf was able to see the far north wall of the chamber and more broken pillars. 

Sensing an opportunity, a still unseen and hungry Basilisk crept up behind a pillar and attempted to use it’s gaze attack to quietly turn the dwarf to stone. Unfortunately (for the Basilisk) dwarves are annoyingly hardy creatures and it had no effect other than to alert the dwarf to its presence. Pivoting around and bringing his great war axe to bear Maul charged the basilisk while the rest of the party stood flatfooted and surprised, wondering what was happening out in the darkness beyond the lantern light.

Maul landed a solid blow and the Basilisk again tried to turn him to stone and was partially successful.

[DM Note: the original Monster Manual gives no good guidance on how the basilisk’s gaze attack functions. I assume it’s a save-vs-paralysis. Essentially save or die. Pretty uninteresting. Thank goodness for Skerples, as the Basilisk in ToTSK gives more guidance. On the first failed save the target is rooted in place as their extremities begin turning into stone. Even their thoughts slow down, and any rolls are at -4. If the Basilisk stares at them for a second round they are done. Statue-city. But if the Basilisk looks away on that second round the target is left only partially transformed and can attempt to save. I like this.]

A Good Basilisk Boi

Rushing back through the darkness the party engaged the basilisk. Because of course they did. Unable to understand the dwarf’s shouted warnings, but seeing his stony limbs and putting two-and-two together, Haco rushed to Maul’s side, turned around backwards so as not to meet the Basilisk’s gaze, and stabbed blindly at the creature. To no one’s surprise he missed.

As realization of what was happening dawned on the rest of the party many things happened at once. Effje pulled a hand mirror from his belt and moved in, attempting to draw the Basilisk’s attention and trick it into stone-gazing itself. Cletus called on her patron Saint, Thomas of The Blue Veil, and cast light into the Basilisk’s eyes to blind it. The Basilisk threw off her spell. The ever-combat-averse Ramen dragged Kip and her lantern off to one side and from the cover of a pillar fired her bow at the Basilisk. Marvolo, a magic user from the keep who had hired on with the group cast the Spell of Exquisite Repose at the creature. However, it proved too strong to succumb to the magical sleep. The Basilisk went nuts and thrashed around with all eight of its limbs, injuring Haco and Maul, knocking them sprawling to the floor.

[DM Note: There was a lot of metagaming going on here as the players figured out what they were facing. While they’re still not seasoned enough to know when they should just run away sometimes, they are quite clever. I was perfectly fine with the Players using their OOC knowledge about Basilisks because with so few game mechanics to tell you what a character can do an OSR game relies on Player ingenuity. Technically, Skerple’s version of the Basilisk cannot turn itself to stone by looking in a mirror, but I was going to let it happen anyway because it was good thinking and the PC actually had a mirror in his inventory. Except that the Basilisk made it’s save Just as Maul had.]

Another round of frantic but ineffective combat followed. Maul, no longer partially turned to stone, leaped onto the Basilisk’s back and clamped down it’s visor, preventing it from stone-gazing anyone else. While this was happening Effje dashed behind the Basilisk and spiked it’s chain to the floor, pinning it more or less in place. 

Backing off from the blinded, pathetically whining, and semi-immobilized creature, the party moved to the north wall (across from the secret door they had entered through) and Ramen worked the hidden latches to open the portal. As the door swung open a half-dozen skeleton warriors appeared from the corridor leading east. Once again Marvolo’s spells proved useless to the situation, but the Fighters, Dwarf, and Cleric made short work of the threat. The party moved into 39. Secret Passage and moved north.

[DM Note: Marvolo was a mistake. 

There are no Magic Users in the party because one look at the limitation of a low-level MU in B/X D&D made even my regular wizard player push the idea of playing one away like a dead animal he’d just found under his bedsheets. I think this is valid. In many ways MUs in old versions of the game can be deeply unsatisfying to play until you earn a few levels. Don’t @ me. However, the tradeoff to their limitations is that magic just works. There are no rolls to cast a spell and if there is a save, it is a hard one. Additionally, a kind DM can let them find lots of spell scrolls to keep the magic flowing. But that’s a hard sell to a player. I’m seriously considering switching to Knave’s magic system if we ever get a wizard in the party.

So why was Marvolo a mistake? I wanted to use him to show the Players the potential fun of playing a Magic User. I gave him to one of my newbies playing a fighter (Effje) to control hoping it might spark some interest in her about the class. I gave Marvolo some good utility spells and a wand with 5 charges that shot The Kaleidoscopic Spray (Basically an AOE stun spell). The wand and spells were all ideal for messing up large groups of low HD creatures, which is all the party has faced so far. But this session they faced a 6HD Basilisk (more than the stun or sleep spells can handle) and later something even tougher. Or in the case of the skeletons, they were immune to the spells he could have otherwise used on them. Marvolo was useless. 

Marvolo was not a mistake. I just screwed the pooch when I selected his spells. Wish me better luck next time. If there is a next time.] 

The short passage ended in another door that opened into 17. Clay Warrior Room. The party knocked over one of the clay statues as they entered the room, and they were relieved to find that it contained neither a serpent-folk skeleton nor poisonous gas. Finding nothing of interest in this room they continued up a passage and emerged in the chamber where Alonzo Machete had died. Everything looked as it had a few weeks ago when they were last here. The long smear of Alonzo’s blood created when the party dragged him away had dried to a dark brown color. The fetid pool at the center of the chamber was calm and unmoving. 

11. Tomb Atrium is a large octogonal chamber with a stone door or passage on each of the eight walls. The party had just emerged in the south-west corner. To the west lay the path back to the False Tomb on the first level of the dungeon. To the east lay a broad descending staircase that was some sort of fun-house slide trap, triggered somehow by the skeletons that Cletus had turned during the skirmish which had cost Alonzo his life.

Exploring counter-clockwise from where they entered the atrium the party discovered 16. Unfinished Room which had only been half carved from the rock. Rotted tools lay scattered about. 15. Priest Room which contained a snake-god icon worth 500sp (10gp) and several scrolls written in the serpent-folk language. It would take Sister Cletus time and access to the library at St. Avandra’s to decipher them. 

The stone door in the north-east wall was more primitive than the others and the burial chamber at the end of a short passage behind the door was roughly hewn. It was 14. The Tomb of Franbinzar. A large stone coffin lay in the center of the room. Sensing that something was amiss, Effje prodded the coffin’s thick stone lid gently with her 10’ pole, giving it a tap. Something tapped back. Backing out and closing the door the group made a note to come back in a few minutes. Maybe.

Moving to the north wall they opened the door to 13. The Tomb of Sparamuntar. The passage leading into the tomb had collapsed and something was lurching and bumping around on the far side of the cave-in. This also seemed like a danger best avoided, so the party backed out and closed the door. 

[DM Note: I hope they go back. There’s a sweet 800xp worth of loot and undead monster-person back in that room. But it’s perfectly understandable if they do not.

At this point I realized that I had not been asking who was opening all these doors. The consensus was that it was probably Ramen since she was the one most likely to spot any traps. I was pleased that they were not forcing the kid holding the lantern to open them.]

As Ramen opened the door to 12. The Tomb of Xisor The Green she stepped on a trigger plate and activated a 3,000 year old magical trap that cast a lesser version of The Excellent Prismatic Spray. The bolt of energy hit Ramen square in the face, burning her terribly and dropping her to the floor.

[DM Note: I’m using a Dying Earth spell list that I found online just because I enjoy the goofy Vancian names. I have no idea if it’s from the actual DE RPG or just something that an individual wrote for fun but it is perfectly OSR compatible. 

Ramen suffered enough damage to drop her to -4 HP. One more hit point and she would have instantly died. Ramen’s player took this turn of events grimly. Only moments earlier she had begun to think that B/X might not be as deadly as I’d claimed and she'd allowed herself to get a bit attached to her PC. “But I just wrote her name in my notebook,” she said through gritted teeth, murder dancing in her eyes.]

Lucky for Ramen the party had invested in healing potions for each of the PCs. Loath to waste resources Ramen’s Player protested, but Maul’s Player flatly stated that Ramen was unconscious and Maul was just pouring the potion down the Specialist’s throat. Eyebrowless but alive, Ramen was helped to her feet.

The party looted the room then returned to 14. Tomb of Franbinzar. Once more Effje tapped at the large stone coffin within. Three times she knocked. Three times came the increasingly insistent reply, each forceful thump from within the coffin shaking the heavy stone lid. The third blow shattered the coffin lid and from inside arose a hulking black mass. Something had gone horribly awry with Franbinzar’s embalming process and he now resembled something like a Black Pudding with an angry, disjointed, skeleton suspended inside of it.

Franbinzar has really let himself go.

Kip failed her Morale check and fled down the staircase leading east, taking the only active lightsource with her. As they were plunged into darkness Franbinzar oozed forward and lashed out at Effje and Haco. In the darkness, Marvolo also failed his Morale check and stumbled off westward.

Thinking fast, Ramen unsheathed the magical bastardsword that was slung across her back. It was loot from the party’s delve into the goblin warrens and it gave off light like a torch! Frantically, the party backed out of the short corridor connecting the tomb to the atrium chamber and slammed the door behind them. As the party braced themselves against the door Effje drove spikes into the floor to hold it shut and wedged his 10’ pole into the doorframe for added measure.

Several plans were discussed and rejected as the Thing That Was Franbinzar threw itself against the heavy stone door. Then it began to ooze underneath the door. Maul poured a flask of oil on it and set it on fire with flint and steel. The ooze withdrew, but resumed bashing at the door which was shaking in it’s frame. 

Suddenly a much deeper, tomb-shaking, “BOOM!” echoed down the western corridor and through the Tomb Atrium, causing dust and rubble to rain from the ceiling. Marvolo had discovered the Hammer Trap up in the False Tomb.

[DM Note: and that is where we “freeze-framed” the game for the night. We only had another 15 minutes of gaming time and we didn’t want to rush the confrontation with the Black Pudding as it was obvious that trickery, rather than swords, would be the only way to survive. So we broke the pattern of beginning and ending at Bebbanburg Keep. 

I was happy when Franbinzar appeared and Ramen’s player said, “You know, we can just run away, can’t we?”

They were starting to figure out that not everything in a dungeon was beatable. Not without schemes and skulduggery.]