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.]

Tomb of The Serpent Kings Part 4: The Boyz Are Back in Town

The Boyz Are Back In Town

[DM Note: to date we have not spent very much time in Bebbanburg Keep. To be completely honest, we have spent no time in Bebbanburg Keep in any sort of meaningful way. When the game began, I wanted to get the players right into the action and so we started in media res, harrying a band of goblins into the mountains where the party would stumble upon the Tomb of The Serpent Kings. As more than half my regular players had to miss the last two sessions I decided that reuniting in the Keep would be a good way to begin remedying that situation.

Bebbanburg Keep and the surrounding land is inspired by the most iconic of all D&D modules, B2 The Keep on The Borderlands. A fortified outpost at the edge of a larger realm surrounded by a hostile wilderness. My own keep is visually based on Castle Carrick, Atrim. It was one of the first castles built by John de Coursy following the occupation of Ireland by the Anglo Normans. An interesting historical tidbit that I am 100% certain my players couldn’t care less about. It contains most of the features of B2’s Keep, though I’ve added a larger village just beyond the curtain wall as well as several other satellite communities that rely on the keep for protection.]

Following the razing of the goblin warrens Dilbo and Melrond booked passage on a ship sailing back across the Bay of Wolves to seek a cure for Melrond’s horrible disfigurements. Failing that, the still half-mad Dilbo seemed determined to murder the unholy abomination that Melrond had mutated into.

Glad to be rid of the capricious demi-humans, the stoic Maul returned to Bebbanburg Keep with Haco. Well rewarded for eradicating the goblin threat the two reunited with Effje, Ramin, and Sister Cletus. They had not been idle during the dwarf’s absence. 

Cletus and Effje had spent long hours in the archives beneath the Chapel of St. Avandra researching the strange mummy they’d fished from the bottom of a flooded pit in the Tomb of The Serpent Kings. Generous donations to the chapel put Curate Hardel and his acolytes at their disposal and much was learned, through prayer and research, about the once might serpent-folk empire that had stretched many hundreds of leagues to the south when the world was a warmer place. As the earth cooled the serpent-folk moved underground, and the burial complex which the party had discovered turned out to be but one of dozens of subterranean complexes through out the Jotunskegg Mountains. How many remained intact was unknown, and the babbling mummy soon crumbled to dust outside the preserving sludge of it’s watery resting place. No further information would be revealed from that source.

During this time Sister Cletus came in contact with another holywoman who was lodging in the temple -an itinerant cleric of Avandra who had stopped at the keep for a few weeks rest. She was dark haired and beguiling, but overly curious about Cletus’ business. Cletus’ suspicions were further roused when she (along with her two creepy mute acolytes) left in the middle of the night shortly after it became known that more serpent-folk structures were likely to be in the area.

Ramen Nudell, not much interested in serpent-folk or spending her days in a dusty temple crypt reading moldy scrolls, put her talents to use elsewhere. She quickly learned of rumors concerning a once-prosperous farming community at the edge of Baron Phelan’s lands. (Phelan ruled at Bebbanburg) . The distant community had a reputation for almost unnaturally bountiful crop yields, and yet many residents appeared to be leaving town in the middle of the night. Entire families would vanish. Some would return several days or weeks later to resume life where they had left off. Others were never seen again. One rumor said that the town’s well water had been poisoned. Another said that people were being turned into monsters and the evidence was fang marks on the neck. The town was called Orlane. Ramen also learned that the local Guild Master, Yohan Munchberger, was concerned that trade from the south was lessening in recent months, and that one caravan in particular was overdue to arrive at Bebbanburg Keep.

Before deciding on their next course of action the party made another generous donation to the Chapel of St. Avandra, which gained them much renown and good feeling among the common folk in the keep and surrounding village. As a result, when the party hosted a huge banquete in honor of the fallen warrior Alonzo nearly the entire population of the keep’s outer bailey showed up. Unfortunately, things got out of hand and the party’s favorite inn, The Slumbering Giant, burned down. 

[DM Note: The party came into a lot more money than I’d intended last session and I wanted to keep them as cash poor as I could. I am using James Young’s (10’ Polemic) Unified House Rules which have some great tables for spending cash during downtime as a means of gaining even more XP.  80% return on philanthropic donations (in this case to the Chapel) and 100% return on carousing. But things can go wrong. As they did. The party also blew a lot of silver on healing potions and more holy water.] 

The party made haste to reequip and head back to the Tomb of The Serpent Kings before the Bailiff could ask any awkward questions, thought at least one person in the keep knows that they are responsible for the inn burning down. . .

Tomb of The Serpent Kings Part 3: Goblin Night!

Player map in sections that are revealed in play. DM map & notes on the graph paper.

This session covered a lot of ground. As it was also a special session with some guests I think a summary of events is appropriate. It will probably still be long.

Since we were running a “Goblin Night” with a few guest players, I thought it would be fun to use Goblin Punche’s very excellent WTF Are Those Goblins Doing? table as well as their D6 Shitty Goblin Traps, so all goblin encounters in this session were randomly determined.

-*--**--*-

As a dwarf, Maul was quite bothered by the fact that his party had not yet completed the task for which they’d been hired many weeks ago -eliminating the goblin threat to the farmland surrounding Bebbanburg Keep.

Alonzo Machete was dead. Ramen Nudell was in the clink, and Sister Cletus with the assistance of Effje was trying to unlock the secrets of the jabbering serpent-person mummy which they had discovered. 

So Maul assembled a B-Team.

Joining the dwarf was a halfing named Dilbo, Melrond the Half-Melven elf, and Young Haco who claimed to be a relative of Alonzo. Though his weak mustache implied that this might not be true.

Approaching the Tomb of The Serpent Kings the party heard voices issuing from beneath the roots of a mighty oak. A secret staircase, some surprisingly alert goblin guards, and a secret door were soon discovered. Skulking, bloody combat, and frustration caused by a firmly locked stone door followed. The party moved on.

Travelling deeper into the mountain the party entered a partially collapsed area of the Serpent Kings Tomb that was being used by the goblin tribe as a home. Goblins muck farmers were encountered in the first room (a mushroom farm that was lit by eerie phosphorescent fungus lights) and semi-successful negotiations were followed as Melrond attempted to befriend the goblins. As that situation resolved itself . . .

[DM Note: One goblin named Gus slightly befriended. One not. This one stabbed Gus in the eye for betraying the tribe and ran for it.]

. . . A goblin patrol appeared from a tunnel to the south. A brief and one-sided fight erupted, and as the Party fought in the shin deep sludge of the farm they discovered a fair bit of treasure hidden in the filth. The best piece by far being The Crown of The Serpent Kings made of eight gold and platinum snakes, with emerald eyes, and diamond teeth. Which Dilbo immediately stuck on his idiot halfing head and crumpled to the ground gibbering and hooting in horror. It took several Game Turns for him to recover. Mostly.

[DM Note: Failed Save-vs-Magical Device.]

The party slung a restrained and gagged Dilbo across Haco’s pack and explored a small tunnel leading east. This lead to an outpost at the edge of the crumbling goblin warren where the party encountered a lone sentry. The goblin carried a strange U-shaped crook and despite being rather drunk it’s attention was fully engaged with watching a broken stone door in the east wall. Maul dispatched the creature with a single blow before Melrond could attempt to befriend him as he had with the farmers, then finished the fermented rotten goat’s milk which the goblin had been getting inebriated with. 

Beyond the stone door they reentered a fully intact area of the Tomb of The Serpent Kings, which the goblins were clearly not inhabiting. In short order they discovered several interesting things. An iron door that required a key they did not (yet?) have. A large sacrificial pit with an eternally burning fire within it. A slave chamber containing enchanted manacles. A skeleton covered in dense orange jelly that made it invulnerable to axe, hammer, and Merlon’s casting of The Metamorphoun of Fire from a scroll he carried. Though it did burn quite well.

Retrieving the strange U-shaped polearm from the dead goblin sentry the party managed to shove the blazing jelly skeleton into the sacrificial pit. The fire in the pit probably wouldn’t kill it, but it was hoped it would be unable to scale the walls. The party hastily returned to the relative safety of the goblin warren.

The next dilapidated chamber that the party entered contained a large and obvious lever mounted on the east wall. Scrapes and furrows were gouged into the stone floor, and a locked door to the west impeded the party’s progress. Examining the ceiling they saw only darkness and thick cobwebs, though Maul suspected there was some sort of trap mechanism up there. After some debate they pulled the level which opened the door in the west wall but also unleashed a half-dozen giant bladed pendulums that struck sparks from the floor at the low point of their arcs. Luckily, goblins are dumb as stones and the patern of the blades was simple to discern. However, when the party was only halfway across the room something went wrong with the trap. Several of the deadly pendulums became entangled and brought the entire rig from which they swung crashing down from the ceiling. All 4,000lbs of it. The floor collapsed taking the machinery of the trap, along with Haco, into a dust filled tunnel on a lower level.

[Dm Note: All but Haco passed a Save-vs-Breath Weapon check.]

Amazingly, Haco suffered only minor wounds and a length of rope was sufficient to retrieve him from the tunnel. Which brought the party to their next obstacle: a serpent-person statue holding a blazing torch. In a high squeaky goblin voice it asked, “What number is green?” 

[DM Note:  Magic Mouth was set to go off when anyone approached the statue. The answer was “One”. Because goblins are Number One. Obviously.]

Maul worked out the idiotic riddle but not before Dilbo blurted out an incorrect answer. Oil sprayed across the torch from an unseen spout in the statue’s serpent mouth creating an ad hoc flamethrower and everyone dove for cover. 

[DM Note: Again the party was very lucky with their Save-vs-Breath Weapon rolls.]

Casting The Call To The Unseen Servant, Melrond brought forth an invisible butler who removed the torch from the statue’s hand and plugged the oil spigot with a bit of cloth. As the party congratulated itself on overcoming yet another goblin trap the statue gave a mighty groan before its crotch exploded covering everyone in oil. 

Behind the statue was a short hallway in which they found a closet full of small oil casks, presumably for refilling the statue trap. Beyond that they opened a door to reveal the goblin throne room where almost a dozen goblins and an enraged bugbear chieftain were waiting for them behind makeshift barriers. 

As goblin arrows flew, Dilbo, Maul, and Haco hurriedly made giant molotov cocktails out of the oil casks. In an attempt to buy time Melrond cast The Hypnotic Charm on the bugbear chieftain and convinced him that his own goblins were about to overthrow him! This came at a cost.

[DM Note: We are using James Raggi’s alternate magic rules for LoTFP that allow for Dangerous Casting once a magic user runs out of spell slots. They must make a Save-vs-Magic in order to cast a spell and if they fail, bad things happen. I think the spell also fails to go off, but it was late so I let them work either way.]

While the bugbear began smashing the nearest goblins with his morningstar, a fully functioning third eye erupted where Melrond’s left nipple had once been.

Maul and Haco both threw burning casks of oil at the nearest goblin barricades. They both missed, though a large part of the room was engulfed in fire. Knowing what he must do Melrond again attempted to cast The Metamorphoun of Fire. His right leg exploded in a spray of blood and bone and in its place was a writhing slime-covered tentacle. But the spell went off and a tsunami of fire swept the goblin ranks. As the goblins danced within the fires Melrond collapsed to the floor in agony. His new best friend, the bugbear chieftain, leapt through the wall of fire to aid the fallen elf.

Unable to resist checking one last room, Dilbo entered a chamber that was covered in old guano. The floor collapsed and he found himself in what might have been a deadly snakepit. Deadly if the goblins had not forgotten to feed the snakes. Instead he lay sputtering in a pile of old bat poop and snake skeletons.

Having had more than enough of these shenanigans the group retreated back to the surface. 

Uneasy about killing the bugbear under his charm, Melrond devised a compromise. He told his bugbear friend (and Gus, the lone-surviving mushroom farmer) that they needed to find a new lair far away from the hostile Men of Bebbanburg Keep. The bugbear agreed wholeheartedly. Maul grudgingly agreed to the compromise though his great axe thirsted for bugbear blood.

[DM Note: That ended the evening. Because I did my math wrong, and because I heavily modified the goblin section of ToTSK I gave out nearly 87k worth of experience points. I meant to give out 8,700. When you are rushing that 50/1 silver/gold conversion will mess you up! :) Taking mercy on me for my goof the Players were content to just reach the next Level and call it a wash. Because Maul was already half-way to Level 2 I let him advance to half-way to Level 3.

I’m excited for the next sessing with the regular group. Between the areas discovered during the second delve and this one, they now have two points of entry into the Tomb of The Serpent Kings, two mysteries in the form of locked doors that only Ramen has a real chance of opening, and nine doors with gods-know-what waiting behind them to investigate.]

Tomb of The Serpent Kings - Part 2b

Retreating down the mountainside to an abandoned woodsman’s cabin which the party had first discovered while hunting down goblins in the local area, a basecamp was established and the unconscious Cletus the cleric was made as comfortable as possible. The desiccated and rotten head of a giant elk peered down from the wall above the mantle at the party. In the dancing shadows of the small fire Maul had lit in the hearth the semi-mummified remains seemed to leer at the group, unnerving the dwarf. He eventually took the subpar example of taxidermy and stuffed it through one of the cabin’s small windows in the hopes that it would scare off any unfriendly humanoids in the area.

Cletus had a scroll of healing in her pack, but no one was able to read it. Supplies were low and it would be several days before the cleric was well enough to travel even a short distance. Desperation forced the group to do the unthinkable -they split the party (after much nail-biting and worry). Leaving most of the food and water with Maul, Eefje and Alonzo made the two day trek back to Bebbanburg Keep, while the dwarf watched over the stricken cleric.

It was five days before the fighters returned, laden with as many consumables as they could carry and an item that cost nearly all of their treasure -a single healing potion. It was decided not to use the potion at that time, but instead wait another three days until Cletus was fully recovered.

Once again the iron spikes had been removed (or fallen out?) of the hammer trap. This time nothing attacked as they were hammered back in.

Making their way quickly to the False Temple, the party dropped down into the secret passage and moved into the unknown. Though reeking strongly of mildew, it’s walls streaked with slime, and tiny rivulets of water running west to east along the floor, the superior stonework of the passage compared to the level above was instantly noticed by the dwarf. The cramped secret passage quickly expanded into a 20’ wide, 15’ tall corridor that stretched beyond the party’s meager torchlight. They had reached Room 9 -The Statue Hall.

At this point the party began to get the feeling that they had passed into a kind of mythic underworld. Sounds echoed and reverberated in odd ways. The torchlight felt small and weaker than it had only a few moments ago.

Reverting to a pattern established during the first two delves, the dwarf moved forward beyond the torchlight to where his darkvision could function and acted as a loud and bulky scout.

DM Note: Darkvision does not work when exposed to any light greater than moonlight in my game. So the dwarf is actually visually impaired when moving within a 30’ radius of the human’s torches.

Six 15’ tall statues of heavily armed and armored serpent-person warriors lined the long corridor, beyond which Maul reported a large octagonal chamber, also lined with glaring serpent-person statues.

Back in the Statue Hall the party noticed that the north-west most statue was somewhat askew from the wall. Not wanting to know what horror lurked behind it, Maul quickly pushed the statue flush against the wall and asked for a spike to make sure it stayed like that.

The curiosity of the others (and a not so subtle bit of prodding from the DM) instead had the dwarf pulling the statue back from the wall to reveal Room 10 -Secret Guardroom. Though all of the furniture had long ago disintegrated Maul was delighted to find a silver serpent idol and two miraculously preserved pikes, which the two fighters were happy to add to their inventory. The rest of the statues in the hall were tested in hopes of finding more secret rooms but none revealed themselves.

Down the hall in the octagonal Tomb Atrium the party discovered several stone doors and a large elaborately carved archway directly across the room from them. In the center was what they believed to be a brackish infinity pool that reeked of licorice where the small rivulets of water from the level above were flowing.  

In actuality it was a deep pit that held defenders of the crypt which had filled over time concealing what lay beneath it’s slimy surface.

Alonzo, being of a curious and Chaotic nature, could not resist poking at the water with his newfound pike (though he carried a perfectly serviceable 10’ pole). While Eefje held the torch the cleric and dwarf hung back at the edge of the light. Alonzo met aggressive resistance and three skum coated skeletons lunged out of the water at him swinging rusty blades and jabbing with corroded spears. One skeleton landed a telling blow but Alonzo gave as good as he got, felling one of the creatures as his companions rushed to aid him.

As the party engaged the remaining two skeletons seven more erupted from the water surrounding the adventuring party. One particularly hefty and well armored skeleton got behind Alonzo and nearly cleaved the human warrior in twain, spraying his companions with a geizer of hot blood.

DM Note: A natural 20 on my part dropped the fighter to exactly -5 HP and sticking to my earlier ruling this meant he was killed instantly. Alonzo’s player rolled extremely well during character creation (4d6, drop the lowest) and it stunned everyone at the table when he was punked by a 1 Hit Die skeleton. But his player was fine with it and it was kind of a fun and exciting moment at the table.

Panic gripped the survivors and plans were made to extract themselves from the ambush or die trying. The nearest corridor lead back the way they had come but it was 20’ wide. Impossible for the three remaining adventurers to effectively defend. They decided instead on a fighting withdrawal to the secret room they had discovered where they could create a bottleneck and limit the number of skeletons that could attack them at once. But their chances of making it that far were slim. 

In an act of selfless heroism (or fanatical desire to martyr herself for her god) the cleric decided to stand her ground and cast Turn Undead.

DM Note: In LoTFP, Turn Undead essentially functions as in other versions of B/X but it costs a spell slot to cast, and a 1st Level Cleric has but a single spell slot.

Searing light erupted from the holy symbol embossed on Cletus’ large shield, illuminating the octagonal chamber like the light of the sun. Six of the skeletons recoiled from the divine light and moved towards the archway leading to Area 18 -Stairs. Maul and Eefje leaped upon the remaining three skeletons. They took down one of the creatures while the others were turned by Cletus who was maintaining her light for as long as she could. 

The retreating skeletons activated the trapped stairs in Area 18 (determined by several random rolls) and all eight of them went crashing and sliding deeper into the dungeon.

The surviving adventurers again probed the black waters to see if anything else was waiting there for them. Several small objects were detected but nothing grabbed their probing pole or attacked them. Fashioning a dredge from Alonzo’s helmet and some rope the party recovered a heavy gold chain, a wand of unknown capability, and the upper torso and head of a mummy. The mummy was quite agitated but not exactly hostile. It gabbered insistently in it’s long-dead snake-person language. The party had no idea what it wanted.

Gathering what they could of Alonzo’s gear, they stashed what they could not carry in the secret room and closed the statue/door hoping to recover it in the future. Then, leaving a 80’ long smear of blood and entrails, they dragged mighty Alonzo’s corpse back up to the False Tomb and placed his remains in the coffin of the previously dealt with skeleton king. (I’m sure nothing bad will come of that.)

Eefje slung the still babbling serpent-person mummy across her back and the party returned to Bebbanburg Keep to research a dead language and recruit more adventurers.

RIP Alonzo Machete

9-22-19 | 9-29-19
“He had a sweet mustache.” 

Tomb of The Serpent Kings -Part 2a

Having defeated the skeletons of the snake-man king and his two brides in Room 6 - False Tomb the party explored the southern end of the chamber and discovered the horrific statue of a snake-person god in the wet and mildewed Room 7 - False Temple. Water leaking in from the mountain above ran in small trickles down the walls and pooled around the base of the statue. Over time this had done considerable damage, and the once secret passage down to the second level of the dungeon lay revealed.

Ill prepared and under-equipped the party decided to return home, give the bailiff of Bebbanburg Keep a report on their progress with the local goblin problem and gear up for a return to the Tomb of The Serpent Kings.

A week later healed and rested the party was once again standing on the threshold of the tomb -though without their specialist, Ramen. There were no signs of anything having disturbed the sight since their last visit. However, when they reached Area 5 - Door/Hammer Trap the party found the iron spikes with which they’d jammed the deadly trap earlier were removed and laying on the floor.

DM Note: Although the first level of ToTSK is a very mundane dungeon I wanted to establish early on the idea that the dungeon actively, if slowly, resisted the intrusion of the player characters.

Several elaborate and mildly paranoid theories about how the trap got reset . . .

DM Note: Mission accomplished.

. . .and Eefje was once again hammering the spikes in to hold the trap’s activating mechanism in place so that they party could continue onwards. The pounding of mallet on iron spike awoke a hungry trio of stirges who had taken up residence in the gears and chains of the hammer trap since the party’s last visit.

Taken by surprise, the party was ill prepared for the stirge’s attack and one of the creatures managed to attach itself to the cleric. While Eefje and Maul the Dwarf fought with the remaining two creatures, Alonzo Machete, not wanting to harm the cleric further, dropped his sword and attempted to beat the stirge attached to Cletus to death. Unfortunately he missed and his mailed fist crashed into the back of  the cleric’s head, dropping her to the ground. Combined with the stirge’s bloodsucking ability this dropped the cleric to -4 Hit Points before the party was able to dispatch the aerial threat.

DM Note: In original B/X when a character reaches 0 Hit Points they are dead. In Lamentations of The Flame Princess (the version of B/X that we are playing) at 0 Hit Points a character is incapacitated. At -3 Hit Points they are mortally wounded and will die in 1d10 rounds. At -4 Hit Points they die instantly. While more generous than OB/X, this still feels a little arbitrary and unsatisfying to me. At -3HP a character is doomed. Maybe they live long enough to give a rousing death speech? I don’t know. I thought it was particularly silly that the bulk of the cleric’s damage came from a bad roll by another player who was trying earnestly to help them. So I decided on the spot that -5HP was when instant-death occurred in my game.

Applying medieval first-aid the party dragged the unconscious and blood-drained cleric out of the ToTSK, and the party desperately tried to come up with a new plan of action.