DF Session 76, Felltower 49 - Part II

Today we finished a delve started a few weeks back, and ended for lack of real-world time.

May 15th, 2016 (but played June 6th, 2016)

Weather: Warm cloudy.

Characters (approximate net point total)

Adventuring:
Dryst, halfling wizard (397 points)
Hasdrubul Stormcaller, human wizard (267 points)
Hjalmarr Holgerson, human knight (269 points)
     Brother Ike, human initiate (135 points)
Mo (his momma call him Kle), human barbarian (271 points)
     Kian, human pirate (~65 points)
Quenton Gale, human druid (267 points)
Vryce, human knight (468 points)

In reserve:
Angus "Mithrilbraid" McSwashy, dwarf swashbuckler (261 points)
Bern Brambleberry, gnome artificer (265 points)
Borriz, dwarven knight (308 points)
Chuck Morris, human martial artist (303 points)
Galen Longtread, human scout (372 points)
Galoob Jah, goblin thief (256 points)
Gerald Tarrant, human wizard (287 points)
     5 skeletons (~25 points) (one is a hunchbacked zombie)
Honus Honusson, human barbarian (302 points)
Kenner Baumfellen, wood elf scout (250 points)
Red Raggi, human berserker (?? points, NPC)

We picked up where we ended, with the PCs surrounded by dead fishmen and giant electric eels and razorfish. The PCs dragged the fishmen over to the ice sheet and looted them, taking a gold lip ring from each one, plus a magical eelskin gold amulet headband depicting two fish heads facing away from each other, and some spears.

While that went one, they did some bandaging, healing, and potion-drinking.

The also sent Dryst and Hjalmarr down into the water to systematically explore the fishmen area with Swim (initially), Water Vision, and Breathe Water. They found numerous flooded cells, some rusted out. All were empty of life, although a few had patches of freshwater seaweed obviously transplanted here, plus some rag bundles tied up with seaweed - maybe a starter seaweed or ersatz seaweed?

One cave had some rusted weapons and fish skeletons on the bottom. When Hjalmarr entered, a spell was cast on him and he felt a wrench, but resisted. He recognized it as the sensation of the shapeshifting attack of the fishman "priest," which set Dryst casting See Invisible and hunting a living fishman. There was none, however, just clearly some kind of magical trap.

Dryst put Improved Magic Resistance on himself and Magic Resistance on Hjalmarr, which let Hjalmarr shrug off the magical attack while he checked out the bottom. Just fish skeletons, and long-corroded weapons.

Searching the rest, they found a staff covered with fish slime (it would later turn out to be Inquisitor Marco's Staff of Healing, sealed up against water with slimy fish goop), a silver chest, a piece of lapiz lazuli, and 14 magical sling bullets. When they pried open the chest, they found it had a broken-tipped cheap main gauche (but a well-decorated showpiece) and what would later turn out to be a Potion of Transparency.

Once all that was done, they headed back to talk to the Crazies. The Warden thanked them and gave them one of his own manacles, which was decorated with a chunk of crystal wrapped to it with copper wire, a few bits of silver and gold (maybe once coins or teeth or decorations) crudely hammered into it, and so on. They took it graciously and asked if he needed more help. He said no, and they were escorted to the way out by boat.

They then met up with the orcs, who had stationed themselves around the way out. The PCs negotiated what 25% was right then and there, deciding they'd cough up loot in order to keep a good thing going. In the end they handed over the main gauche, four spears, a couple of the gold lip rings, and kept mum about the better stuff. The orcs seemed to buy it, and took their potion (via a couple orcs sent down to collect it.) The PCs climbed up, and the orcs escorted them out the same way.

The PCs made it back to town, and divided up the loot.

Notes:

That ends part I. I'll try to post Session 76, Felltower 50 - Part I (sigh) tomorrow.

The ended up with an uneven loot distribution - Vryce got extra (so he'd get 2 xp instead of 0 for falling short of his needs), the others divided the rest. Why so little? Because they didn't want to part with the amulet, because it was too useful as a power item thanks to its 8000 sp value (plus it has Shapeshift Others (Fish) on it, with 4 charges left), so they did a whole hand-me-down trade series to upgrade everyone's power items. They also wanted to keep the potion, and the sling bullets were Puissance +1 and Penetrating Weapon (2), which is a rare find and could be very useful in combat for Vryce against armored, distant foes.

As for magic items, it's nice to see they finally have the staff back, lost in Total Party Teleport I, and first found in Session 9.