Monday 29 May 2017

Keep on the Borderlands - The Path of Evil - Session 39




SESSION 39: DAY 17 – CAVES OF CHAOS

Lucien claps his companions on the back, "It is with a proud and just heart we give praise. Asmodeus has cleared the path for our victory, rewarding those whom have proven themselves worthy by guiding each our hands, and rightfully smiting fell lesser beasts by steel and spell.

We have all earned a rich reward indeed. Malandir, were you to bend your will just a little to His Infernal Teachings, you would make a fine convert. It would... complete you."

Lucien arches an eyebrow, smiling at the valuable elf.

Malandir nods in acknowledgement of the compliment. 

"Indeed, praise be to Asmodeus," Per declares with pride in his voice. He awaits his orders as he cleans the gnoll blood from his glaive.

Malandir looks around the room at the swift destruction of the foe. Time for his keen sense of value to work....and so he searches the room, using his detect magic ability as well. The rest of the party join in with the men at arms posting guard on the door to ensure that they aren’t disturbed. 

Searching the room for secret doors and traps, Malandir finds nothing. Searching for loot is another matter. The gnoll King has a pair of silver armbands, which Malandir appraises, worth 50gp each and he has 39gp in his belt pouch. Each of his sons has 14gp and each female wears a silver neck chain worth 30gp and an additional 4gp in coin. The furnishings of the place are crude, battered and worthless. A large metal pot beneath a flagstone near the fireplace hides another 190gp. When party members use Detect Magic, the King’s weapon glows magically. Lucien attempts to use Spell Craft to identify the properties of the weapon. He is assisted by Malandir. Malandir rolls d20 = 11 + 2 for being an elf = 13 which exceeds the DC of 10 to help. He provides valuable assistance. Lucien rolls d20 = 15 + 5 Spell Craft skill + 2 from Malandir’s assistance = 22 which exceeds the DC of 15. The King’s weapon is a +2 Falchion. 

Searching through the rest of the cave system they find various weapons and gold amongst the fallen gnolls. They overcome the lock to the store room and in it they find more weapons and armour and a barrel of exceptionally fine ale. The odor of the ale temps them all to drink it. Fremont is the first to taste it. He smiles and looks around at the party happy with the strong taste. None of the party are able to resist and they all start to drink the strong brew. A celebration is had and when they finish the barrel they continue their work, although drunkenly, searching the rest of the caves, gathering weapons and, the gruesome task of skinning the gnolls. 

It’s hard but rewarding work and the total loot gathered is:
·        522gp in various lose coins and jewelry
·        The Kings hide, 13 male hides, 20 female hides, 2 hyena hides, 38 sets of ears
·        Magical falchion +2
·        2 master crafted composite longbows (+2 strength) (being carried by Per and Talmark)
·        13 spears, 20 small short swords, 20 small short bows, 7 shields, 1 suit of chain mail, 12 hand axes, 3 long bows, 5 quivers of 20 arrows, 1 empty barrel

Total experience learned from the adventure is 10,400, spread amongst the various party members and men at arms. 

The current wealth register is provided below.

The current xp register is provided below.

Malandir has earned enough experience to go up a level. Per hasn’t leveled yet but isn’t far off. Lucien, Kord and Talmark will need to earn 905 more xp before they level again.

A few consumables were used during the adventure. The current remaining consumables register is provided below.


DEW

10 comments:

  1. The party will need to get back to civilisation to level up or alternatively they could continue on, although they are becoming heavily ladened.

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  2. Congrats, Malandir!

    Lucien wishes to remove the now-earless head of the "exceptionally large gnoll leader." My eventual intent is to rend this down to bone and incorporate the large skull into a suitable helmet.

    For now he will use a torch to cauterize the decapitation and ear wounds to try to mitigate that "fresh blood smell."

    Lucien votes we head back to our cave, drop off anything we do not want to take to the Burg, and then on to the Burg to convert what we have to gold, and allow Malandir the opportunity to train up if the DM requires it.

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    Replies
    1. Rich see if you can find a picture of your character with a bone helmet that you like. As soon as you can I can change your character icon.

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    2. Yes I think that going back to the Burg, or other form of civilisation, is required to level. It adds some role play and story arc opportunities rather than just a dungeon hack and slash game (which is good too but ultimately, over time, will become a little boring).

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  3. That sounds like a good plan.

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  4. Wow, what a haul! Great job guys! (And GM!)
    Talmark agrees about returning to the cave then town. Hopefully we won't run into anything, as I still have a bit of a hole in me!
    Talmark is also all for keeping the nice Long Bow. The Falchion would fetch excellent money, but perhaps it would be better used by a party member, maybe one of the men at arms?

    Something we may want to be aware of (or I may be planting an exceptionally bad seed in the GM's brain...) is that we are leaving a lot of corpses laying around, and that will draw scavengers and rats and possibly disease. Maybe the odd evil wizard or Liche (kidding on the last 2, but not the first). We may want to grab/make a couple of scrolls of Remove Disease or something similar.

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    Replies
    1. Man that's a great couple of ideas. I hadn't thought of that.

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  5. Excellent idea when we are a high enough level to access those spells.

    Another option - it would have consequences that are unknown - is to drag all the bodies out maybe 40-60ft from the cave and set them alight just before we leave.

    No rats, no disease, skeletal remains, BUT other tribes would be aware something is going on. It could step up their alertness, or be a catalyst for Intimidation checks later, prompt them to spread themselves thin by claiming this cave, just putting it out there as an option.

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  6. DEW had also said previously he'd like the Men at Arms to all be same-armed and armored for game ease.

    SELL the Falchion. Think towards the future, Lucien will be taking Craft Wondrous Item as his 3rd level Feat and we will need gold to buy needed resources to craft the magic.

    I was thinking a Scabbard of Vigor for Talmark, a relatively inexpensive item and a combat boon, but you might want to think up something more thematic for your PC.

    Kord, Malandir and Per should also think on inexpensive magic item(s) Lucien could possibly craft that they would like.

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    Replies
    1. Yes please. Keep the men at arms the same just because it's hard enough trying to remember all the stats of the various characters during game play let alone NPC's.

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