They woke up in the dungeon and decided to go down the stairs to the next level. They did not elect to go dig the treasure in the Earth temple that they knew was there. They went down the grand staircase and upon reaching the bottom, they were turned away by the magic portals that blocked the way down. The door was more elaborate this time; they got the hint that something cool was behind these doors. But they could not approach them, except for the Paladin and he elected to comeback another time. They collectively remembered that there was another staircase going down near the prison. The prison that they did not open because they did not want to free the potential sacrifices and be burdened with NPCs. So they decided to go back to the prison and sneak by the cells and go down the stairs there. So they snuck by the prison cells. Seriously!
The Paladin is making all the leadership decisions, but he is not good. He is not the typical devotion Paladin, he is a revenge paladin and I can't fault him, but the rest are Good aligned, so I should expect more from them. One is Gold Aligned. One is seething under his skin, but letting it slide. One is a worshiper of a neutral deity, so her character is very meh. So the next time they go to town they will get the punishment for this behaviour. I talked about it with my friend. He said that since they are playing their roles I can't discipline them for going against their alignment, so I should socially reprimand them. Next time they are in town at their local watering hole, they will be refused service. They will be told that there is no room at the inn. They will be told that the shop owner just ran out of the goods they are looking for. The Paladin may go to the Temple of Scoria and be told that he may stay and pray to Scoria for guidance but there is no place to stay in the temple that night. The leather worker that they got to make gloves for them and a belt will be finished and he will give them to the party and then wish them on their way. The general store and trading company will be chummier than before, as they match the descriptions of the characters invading the temple. Ironically, they will tell the story that is circulating town about the non human adventuring party that used the prisoners as bait and how the granddaughter of the mayor was one of the prisoners and the cousin of the Innkeeper in the Welcoming Wench was eaten by the ghouls too. If they want to stay the night they will have to do it at the keep. The Duke's Man will of course accept them with open and understanding arms. He will tell them that he hopes that they will stay the night and as long as they wish. He will tell them that there have been rumours of evil doing in the town and he needs them as witnesses so that the dukes justice can be carried out appropriately.
I digress.
They went down to the second level, and turned left, then the turned left at the next crossroads, then they turned left and entered a room that was filled with a wall and a giant pool of water behind the wall. The paladin then stated that there must be a temple on every level and this must be the temple of water and so he went about destroying the cistern. The water flooded on to the floor and went down cleverly made drains in the floor. Since the Temple of Water was vanquished they turned left and found a giant hallway/banquet hall 40' across and 120' long filled with ruined furniture. They walked to the end of the hallway and turned left. Then left, then left again. From the right the bard spied a bronze coffer sitting partially buried in a pile of garbage. The coffer had to have treasure in it, it did it turned out, but it also had a ravenous Beast in it the trash. The beast lashed out and there was a very noisy battle where the PCs killed the beastie. Then the elf noticed a secret door and the paladin opened it. There was a very large number of bugbears waiting having heard the noisy battle. While the bugbears were happy that the beast who had devoured two of their numbers recently, good garbage disposal monsters are very hard to acquire so it's loss was going to be particularly hard to replace, so the twenty or so Bugbears had piled forth to morn the loss of the garbage disposal by killing the people that killed it.
Bugbears are not much of a threat for mid level characters. One or two is a big battle for low level characters. Twenty bugbears and two leaders is a real threat for the party. Especially if the bugbears all cram in to the fight all at once. The bugbears surprised the party when e battle ended all the players had survived, but a few of them were worse for wear. One of the things the party discovered was that the Paladin hates one of the NPCs, the girl that they rescued from the evil priest in Neloar. In the battle last session he was upset that she had healed him and in this battle he refused to heal her, when she was near death.
The next session they will probably decide to go to the southern portion of the temple level. What will they find there? Will it be an ally or a foe? Will it be a group of prisoners, what will they do when they are recognized by one of the prisoners? Will they find the real Temple of Elemental Water, or will they find stairs going down?
That reminds me, I need to find and buy more markers…
That was two weeks ago.
There was only one major battle in this run, but they did get a prisoner and they let him go. I am really starting to worry about this party, or about the younger people playing Dungeons and Dragons. This is what happened.
They moved from the bugbear slaughter, and followed the path least traveled and they encountered a store room filled with mundane objects and a pile of bones in the corner. They ignored the pile of bones and went to loot the the mundane items. Arrows, javelins, food and clothing; nothing too exciting. There was a monster in the room, but it had spell like abilities and was therefore invisible and since the party was making no attempt to be quiet, I ruled that the beast's attempt to be quiet successful. Two of the party members were looking for weapons and the rest at the other things, the monster chose to attack the two alone and the less armoured one first. It was a Barlgura, a Demon. In my world demons are native creatures. They are rare and occur mostly on the moon Hestia, where they battle their wardens and attempt to escape, but if you dig deep into the ground and delve into mystical areas demons and devils will be found. The party has had some tough battles and they have yet to encounter a few of the really hard encounters, but they will remember this encounter, because 1) one of their character's was killed in two rounds without getting a chance to attack, the monster had a high initiative roll and a round of surprise. Six attacks with advantage, and boom the character started with 49hp and was dead with -7hp, 2) the little cleric saved the day by casting a spell that healed the character to 9 hp allowing the character to attack the next round anyways.
The next time they entered battle it was another protracted battle. The last session they tipped of a group of guards for the Greater Temple. They were on high alert and they were digging in. Most forays into the temple tus far had been unorganized and had failed, but after the party did not return quickly they investigated the direction they had come from and saw the devastation in the upper level. They decided that they would send a report after the party left, as the party was in e general location of the main stair case to the lower levels. The party happened upon the southern room of theirs and they had to fight. The guard at the peep hole saw them enter the passage wayand he left the door leaving the rug before the door. The party eventually entered through the door, but after giving the guards time to set up. The guards were almost all weak, but there were two sargents, a leuitenant, and the captain. The bard shouted, "Surrender or die!" and the guards died, on the second round the door to the next room opened and the remainder of the guards poured in to the battle. The tough guards died almost as easily as the weak guards, but they all died. The party members poured into the next room and the Captain surrendered, and his leuitenant tried to run for it, but attacked as he ran and was cut down for his efforts.
The party was non committal on their interigating techniques. First they talked to him free to move around, then they tied him up. When I play the interogated prisoner, I always tell the truth, and never lie. I also never tell the whole truth. Well the captain was Chaotic Evil, so I rationalized that he would tell the truth to this powerful group, who he knew had trashed the Earth Temple and several dozen defenders as well as four Earth Elementals. He was hoping that he would get to leave with his life and some treasure. The party had some questions and he sang like a bird. He told them about the giants, he told them about the greater temple on the fourth floor, and told them he had been there once when he was first brought to the temple. He told them about the three temples on this level and how to get there and drew a map. And they told him he was free to go, if he would collect the prisoners they freed and return them to the surface. And my jaw hit the floor, but I did not let them know this. He did not tell them about the guards at the prisoner room, and he thought in his head that they might kill him for this failed admission, but they collected the prisoners, four were elves, and they recognized the druid as a family member three times removed, suddenly the plans changed and they were escorting the prisoners out themselves, and they collected the prisoners that they snuck by repeatedly, sadly most of those prisoners were on a low water diet and had died. The alive prisoner was a gnome, and he told them that he had heard them talking out side his cell on the previous times they went by and he had climbed the door to see them pass.
The town that they had shown no interest entering the days before they entered with the freed prisoners. Oh, I forgot, the mounts and cart they had were tied up outside the entrance to the temple: Surprise, they were gone when they emerged two days later. They entered the town of Nulb, which they missed before. It was not a good town, it was rather a mistake of a town: seedy, slightly evil, most of the people in the town were normal, but a strong undercurrent worked in the nearby temple or informed for them, or we're river pirates. Openly pirates! That was before, now though, they entered a town that had been turned against them. The people that worked for the temple would have been hostile, but the regular town folk had heard that family members were held captive in the temple and that the heroes had found them, twenty of them and re locked them up in the cell reasoning that since they just got there, they should look around before coming back, when they came back a few hours later, a group of ghouls and a ghast had come to the larder and picked out two prisoners and ate one there and carried one back for later, so they found the prisoners in hysterics, one of them had seen her husband butchered and devoured before her, arms chained above her head. The party said that they were going to sleep in the cell and they would escort the prisoners out in the morning. Most of the prisoners decided they did not trust the heroes so they made their own way out, and the characters, just let them go. Half of them died. In the morning they brought the survivors to the surface and pointed in the direction of the town, and returned to the temple.
The story of the rescue of the prisoners had only just started making the rounds of the town, but let's face it, the news spread faster than a story about the old farmer caught despoiling his sheep. The owner of the bar, well he was related to the woman whose husband was murdered and many shop owners did business with they murdered merchants. A village of less than a thousand people, most of them not in the town itself, twenty taken away and when found over half of them are allowed to be murdered and the rest were just pointed the way back to town, not escorted. Imagine, there is a hostage situation in you town and a group of police find the hostages, but decide to use them as bait to find the criminals, but half of the prisoners then die.
The party enters the town, unbeknownst to them, they were seen and identified as they came into town. They were grumbling about someone lifting their mounts. The bar goes quiet. They saunter over to the bar and ask for food and a room. The bartender tells them that they had just served the last of the food and there is no more. The rooms in the hotel are all full. The players start complaining that the towns folk are racist, because they are all human. The rescued gnome gets a room, he turns to the bar and tells them about how he heard the Heroes trying to sneak by his prison room twice, saying to each other that they need to be quiet so the prisoners did not know they were there. He told them about the nine prisoners that died waiting to be freed. The elf prisoners had no trouble getting rooms. Three of the party members decide that camping might be the wiser way in this town. Two of the party members try to get the sympathies of the local blacksmith, Otis, secret knight of Jarda, and he morally berates the characters for what they did.
The two characters talk then about burning to village down as they are ungrateful for their help.
Interesting. So they released a chaotic evil guard on his own cognizance? Well he imeadiately heads back in to the temple to report a force that is attacking the temple, he was wounded and appeared dead and snuck away, he will mention that they were led by a paladin of Scoria. The duke is a Scorian, and the temple and the Duke are enemies, it may be enough, especially if he waits a few days after they bring down the three temples or at least one or two, it might work.
The Duke's Man in Hommlet hears about the rude treatment of the people in Nulb and he consoles them, saying if they did that to him he might lynch a few of them as way of showing them how lucky they were to have such heroes risking so much for them. Then proceed to the execution of the townsman for the crime of tax evasion and therefore treason in a time of war. Off with his head! The festivities will first call the heroes to the stage after anouncing the humanoid ears they have collected and the taxes they have paid all for the war effort. Then he will say that it was a shame that the day was to be marred by the fact evidence had come forward that one of the townsfolk had been caught committing a crime and boom,
After the execution, the players will have to find someway of justifying their actions with the duke and his man, after all, they were honoured as friends, but he just executed a man for using barter and avoiding taxes.
