Tomb of The Serpent Kings Part 6

When last we met our heroes . . .

Those dummies were trying to stuff a Black Pudding back in it’s crypt after they woke it up by poking at it with a ten foot pole. It was going exactly as well as you would imagine. 

DM Note: As I feared when we freeze-framed the game at this moment six weeks ago, by the time we were finally able to get together again one of the players had to bow out at the last minute for some perfectly valid reasons. So now Ramen, whose player was absent, was demoted to “glowing magic sword holder” for the session. Every party needs a torch bearer I guess. 

All attempts at spiking the door shut or jamming it closed with the previously mentioned ten foot pole were not working out. The heavy stone door shook in its frame as the massive pudding threw itself against the thing standing between it and its first meal in 4,000 years. 

DM Note: In fairness (?) my players don’t know what a Black Pudding is and have no context for how easily it could destroy a party of 2nd level adventurers. But they would definitely understand that once the session was over.

Wisely they decided to choose the better part of valor and book it out of there. The only question was in which direction should they run. To the west there was the hammer trap, as Marvolo reminded them when he fled at first sight of the Black Pudding, but not knowing about the trap got himself good and pasted by it. 

DM Note: Probably he could have worked out how to avoid it, but I wanted to remind the players that it was there incase it sparked any clever ideas about how they might deal with the 12HD pudding. I thought shaking the entire dungeon when it went off was a huge hint. But I’m just a dumb DM, what do I know? In truth, two hours later they WOULD come up with a plan to hit the pudding with it. Thought they were very worried that this would lead to them being attacks by dozen of tiny puddings.

To the south was the secret passage leading back to the Basilisk Hall (where the party knew they still had a bit of exploring to do but also a scary monster to deal with), and to the east was the trapped staircase that lead who-knew-where and there were sounds of a commotion coming from down there. So basically it was danger, danger, or danger.

The party opted for the danger they didn’t know and ran for the stairs. 

DM Note: Without their Specialist to search for traps I decided to wing it. I’ve become a little dissatisfied with the X-in-6 Skills of LoTFP and similar OSR games. They are definitely a HUGE improvement over the original thief abilities and badly defined skills of B/X, but I’m finding that I really dislike single d6 rolls for anything. In fact, one would lead to another fatality later on. So with Ramen acting only in her capacity as a light source I asked the player with the highest Wisdom to make an Ability check. In this case it was Sister Cletus and she spotted the false step that triggered the slide trap.

As the party moved down the stairs the indistinct sounds of a moment ago quickly resolved themselves into the clash of blades and the shouts of combat. They couldn’t see very far into the chamber ahead from the stairs, but they could see their linkboy, Kit, huddling behind an armored fellow in a white tabard. Kit let out a shriek as the man bellowed a prayer and somehow managed to deflect a rusty blade almost as long as he was tall. The parried blade threw sparks off the stone around the staircase and after a brief pause the PCs surged forward to see WTF was going on.

An area very similar to the Tomb Atrium they had just left was before them. Instead of a reeking pool of filth at its center the Stone Cobra Guardian Arena (19) had a massive stone skeleton warrior. Lining the walls were a dozen shields that gave the room the feeling of a trophy hall. And battling this stone skeleton was another adventuring party!

DM Note: I swapped out the stone snake-person statue for a giant skeleton. Because I just happen to own a giant skeleton and when else would I ever get a chance to use it?

As the PCs watched a wizard in blue robes and an old fashioned hat spoke in a black tongue that made everyone’s vision dim for a moment. Bolts of eldritch fire crashed into the giant skeleton’s ribs and blew off fist-sized chunks. The skeleton replied by smashing the wizard into jelly with its massive club. A human fighter and a dwarf berzerker hacked at its legs before it delivered a sweeping attack with the club that threw them both back. A nimble rogue avoided the attack and threw a dagger that stuck in the giant’s eye socket.

Enraged, it dropped the man-sized blade it carried in it’s off-hand and magically summoned a shield off the wall. As it flew across the room at great speed it decapitated the rogue. The giant turned to face the dwarf and human fighter.

DM Note: I really wanted to telegraph what this monster could do and how easily it could wreck an adventuring party. Eefje’s player wisely suggested simply running past it and out the doorway on the far side of the room. Unfortunately no one commented on this plan and it was not followed through on. Haco’s player pondered tripping the giant somehow with all the rope they carried and then either subduing it or killing it while it was down. I thought these were both excellent plans but said nothing. 

Stunned, but deciding to lend what aid they could the party devised a plan to shelter in the arch of the staircase and use their crossbows to attack from range. If the giant turned on them they would retreat back up the stairs (hoping that the Black Pudding was not slithering down after them). Maul, Haco, and Eefje stepped into the room to either side of the stairs, acknowledged Kit and the cleric who was warding her, and took aim. 

Or at least that was the plan. Inspired by who-knew-what Eefje drew his mace and charged the giant stone skeleton. Always looking for a good way to die (like all right thinking dwarves) Maul dropped his crossbow and unslung his battle axe. As the dwarf charged after Eefje, Sister Cletus cast Bless on him. Rolling his eyes Haco followed suit and abandoned his crossbow for his sword.

With surprise on their side the three warriors delivered a massive amount of damage -almost enough to take the stone giant out! 

DM Note: Eefje rolled a Nat 20 and Maul’s player asked if it would be reasonable to use his Architecture skill and dwarven knowledge of stone to figure out a weak spot on the monster. I said no, but that I admired her creativity, so yes anyway, gave them advantage on their first attack. He rolled badly anyway, but Cletus’ Bless prayer helped enough for him to land a solid blow on the giant skeleton.

Initiative roll. The PCs win! Then they all miss their next attacks. :( Skeleton time. IT lashed out with it’s AOE sweeping blow.

DM Note: As I had telegraphed earlier, I gave the giant stone skeleton a sweeping attack that forced all adjacent enemies to save vs Breath Weapon or suffer 2d8 damage. Save for half. I definitely don’t like the old unintuitive Saves. Even the slightly modernized version that LoTFP uses are still kind of goofy. I thought they were fun at first, but now they are just starting to annoy me. I mean, sure, you can make sense out of them. But its extremely antiquated and there are better ways to do it. Like a simple DEX check -roll under your Ability to dodge. Way easier/intuitive and suddenly your Ability scores actually mean something.

Maul avoided the wild swing of the giant skeleton’s club, but his two human companions were not so lucky. Haco effectively exploded from the force of the blow and Eefje was hurled across the room.

DM Note: This was the point at which everyone suddenly remembered that in game time they had fought a basilisk just twenty minutes earlier and tussled with a black pudding only moments ago. Those big gaps between sessions are a killer! I did my due diligence reminding everyone of what had happened last time. I can’t be expected to remember who lost hit points though.

Haco went to -12 HP. Very dead. Eefje dropped to -1 HP.

There was some debate about whether or not he had used the Shields Shall Be Broken! Option last session or not. None of us could remember. Haco’s player suggested rolling a single d6 to decide if he had already shattered his shield or not. That dang die decided he was dead as heck.

Seeing her friends dashed to the ground Sister Cletus charged forward with her mace and together with Maul and the survivors of the other adventuring party took down the giant stone skeleton.

The party agreed to tell everyone back at the keep that it was Haco who delivered the killing blow and that he was the real hero of this fight. Also, probably, if anyone asked, that iT was Haco who burned down the inn the last time they were in town. As Cletus and Eefje spoke with the NPC adventurers Maul hacked off the stone skull from the skeleton and decided to have it hollowed out so he could wear it as a helmet. I declared this would give him Advantage on all intimidation checks when he was wearing it.

Deciding that they had definitely had enough fun for one day, the party opted to return to the keep. But how to get out? Whether by the False Tomb or the secret passage under the tree, they would have to go back through the Tomb Atrium. A plan was needed to bypass the Black Pudding.

DM Note: Haco’s player took his second character death in stride and decided to play a magic user. The other players wanted to find him in the dungeon so that Haco's player would not be left out of the fun. So I declared that the NPC fighter unzipped his skinsuit to reveal the wizard who had apparently been pulped by the giant skeleton. Everyone was very pleased with this decision. Maaaaaagic!

Eventually the survivors of the brawl decided that oozes probably weren’t very fast, and if they veered south of the black licorice pool they could probably just dodge around the monster. The door to the Black Pudding’s crypt exploded into several pieces just as the survivors reached the top of the stairs and began running for the Statue Hall and the relative safety of the False Tomb above. 

DM Note: I had the group make a simple opposed roll adding the DEX bonus of the most nimble PC. Unfortunately their player was not there. So it defaulted to the terrible DEX bonus of the next best PC. The Black Pudding rolled much higher. I rolled randomly to see who it got.

The screams of Brother Felix, the non-denominational Unitarian Universalist cleric of Everybody Just Cool Out, quickly turned to a frothing gurgle as he was engulfed and digested by the Black Pudding. With a group scream the survivors pelted onward and upward.

Then came to a dead stop at the hammer trap. Marvolo had definitely set it off and some of him had come oozing through the gap in the doors to the False King’s Tomb. There was a big obvious level in the room for resetting the hammer trap but the party was concerned about setting it off on themselves as soon as they stepped through the doors. JD, the new wizard, checked to see if Marvolo had anything of value on him. He found a very wet belt pouch. 

The Black Pudding gushing up from the False Temple lit a fire under them. Wrapping a rope around the level controlling the hammer trap the group hustled out into the Entrance Hall. As the pudding hove into the doorway Eefje pulled on the rope. Nothing happened. Maul gave it a pull. Nothing Happened! The pulled together!!!

The hammer trap swung down into the Black Pudding with enough force to turn it into a fine mist of slop which hit the party like they had front row seats at a Gallagher show. 

Relieved and exhausted the party began the two day journey back to Bebbanburg Keep.