DF Session 196, Felltower 132 - Wells, Pools, and Cultists of the Good God

Date: July 28th, 2024
Game Dates: July 28th and 29th, 2024

Weather: Sunny, hot.

Characters
Chop, human cleric (~320 points)
     Harald, human guard
     Samuel, human guard
Duncan Tesadic, human wizard (~310 points)
Hannari Ironhand, dwarf martial artist (~330 points)
Vladimir Luchnick, dwarf martial artist (~280 points)

We started off in town, with the party discussing their rumors and looking for hirelings. They found Harald and Samuel, and Darkspire, but only chose to take the two ("we say this quietly," said Vlad) "meatshields." They had a few goals:

- clear the well entrance

- investigate the pools for a possible gate to a lower level (an old, old rumor)

- find some loot

For the first, they made some Scrounging rolls (Duncan) and found someone to sell them a saw, block and tackle, crowbar, and a wheelbarrow, and Duncan has Earth to Air now. The second, just a list of appropriate rumors. For the third, they planned on Seek Earth.

They spend Sunday the 28th on the surface, getting rid of the earth in the well yard by yard, while the stronger sorts used the tools to haul out chunks of magic resistant stone, lumber, bushes, some animal carcasses and bones, etc. and toss them clear. It took about 8 hours, so they finished as it was getting fully dark and slept overnight in the outbuildings. Nothing bothered them in the night.

The next morning, they resumed, finishing the last 10' block of corridor between the two broken secret doors. They had a new - old - dungeon entrance.

From there, Seek Earth for gold, silver, and orichalcum turned up the first two nearby-ish (they figured the otyugh pit) and the last failed.

They made their way towards the pit, but found a bell set up in the "noisy room" on the door to the main entrance. They disarmed it by putting Walk on Air on Hannari and having him take it down. They'd made plenty of noise already forcing the other door to the room, but they didn't want to additional alarm. They continued on, hoping to investigate this later.

After lots of getting stuck on the bent portcullis, they made to the otyugh's pit and cast their spells again. Now it was close, but a ways back to their upper left. They'd overshot.

They found a secret door marked on their maps and went into the "apartments" near were the Choke brothers were fought so far back when, and where "Brother Mo!" screwed up the password. They easily opened a secret door in. Expecting trouble - the bell, and detected gold - Duncan put a Resist Lightning spell on Hannari . . . and rolled a 3. A second roll determined it was normal cost to maintain but affected everyone! Huzzah. Duncan readed a 6d Explosive Lightning spell.

Beyond it they found a looted wardrobe, with three black robe outfits, and beyond that the looted remants of a once-richly appointed bedroom. Beyond that . . . they found trouble. They guarded one door out of the bedroom (Harald) and the others forced the door. Hanari had to Dodge two crossbow bolts as they crisscrossed the doorway. He did, and Samuel blocked the one that reached him (Hitting the Wrong Target).

Hannari moved into the hallway beyond and engaged a number of humans. There were eight - two with crossbows, four with sword and shield (one right behind the doorway, waiting in ambush), and a pair of spellcasters - one with a staff and robes, the other with a holy symbol and nothing else. The groups engaged.

It wasn't much of a fight. Vlad put two arrows into one guy and then two more after he fell. Hannari put axes in to 3-4 others and a meteroic kama into the wizard after Vlad's arrows missed (Missile Shield). The wounded swordsmen tried to get aid, and did get some healing from their holy symbol carrying friend, but it didn't matter much. Duncan put two 6d Explosive Lightning spells into the group of them. Vlad - after murdering a couple of guys with four vitals shots each - told Hannari to "wrestle the wizard!" and everyone to "leave them alive." Immediately after he shot the last upright, fleeing guy in the vitals from behind and killed him. All were dead.

They found some minor coins, some good swords and crossbows, a magic staff, and a holy symbol of the good god. "They must have been cultists of the good god" said Chop, himself a Cultist of the Good God. Vlad disagreed, and say they were clearly evildoers who had stolen a holy symbol. Despite that, Chop gave them all last rights and inisted they leave the hold symbol with its wielder.

They found a key to a chest, and then the chest. It had 200 sp and 24 elven rations ("23!" said Vlad, stuffing his face), and a map showing a rough sketch of the surface and the two known entrances still open.

That all done, they headed to the pool room.

They basically systemically checked all of the pools, using Analyze Magic on the magic ones, resist spells and feeling around on the others. Vlad figured out the healing one was a healing one by cutting himself and then drinking; no one else got the chance as sometime later it was empty - when no one was looking. Vlad then got wasted on the alchohol pool.

Worried about the magical effects of a few pools, they put Magic Resistance 12 (6 levels, 2 per level) on Hannari. He rummaged around in the "dreams" pool but it lost all of its color. The silver-flecked Mage Sight pool also losts its silver flecks. Decided they were "killing the pools," they stopped.

The only thing of real note was that Hannari, with Resist Fire 3 on felt . . . something . . . at the bottom of the fire pool, and then it was gone. It felt like a palm-sized hemisphere of something solid but not hard, and then it was gone.

Finding nothing else of interest, they gathered up 4 vials of acid from the acid pool (losing one jar to an 18 on Hazardous Materials, safe only because of Resist Acid on Duncun. They took them over to the portcullist and used 3 of those plus the crowbar and some muscle to rip out a few bars, getting rid of the penalty to pass through.

Having gotten some nice loot and checked off some rumors and cleared two ways in, they headed home.

Notes:

- I'd forgotten how comically short DF dwarves are. Hannari is 4'0" and Vlad is a towering 4'6". All SM 0. Hah.

- Those who will most benefit from today would least likely have put up with doing it - Vic's assessment of the checking of the pools and clearing the well. Clearing the well wasn't as much of a project anymore since Duncan now has Earth to Air. Using Shape Earth, with its 1-second duration in DF Felltower, is a huge problem. Just making the dirt go away forever? Not an issue. We could handwave moving the debris because they had four relatively strong guys (ST 11, 12, 12, and 13, aka 13, 12, 12, 15 with Lifting ST) and rope, an anchor point, a wheelbarrow, a saw, and a block and tackle. Plus no one was in a rush because it was on the surface.

- the apartment area secret door was, no one noticed, extremely easy to breach. This is because someone - not the PCs - "broke" it. Prior to that, they couldn't be opened from the outside with special access methods.

- Vlad sends mixed messages.

- The PCs paid for a sage for a week to research the burning pool of everburning patroleum and whatever that hemispheric (maybe) thing that Hannari touched.

- XP was 4 each. Hannari was MVP for being willing to feel around in the blood-filled pool. He was blood-soaked but didn't learn anything.