This weekend we rolled the tournament module, “In the Dungeons of the Slave Lords.”  This is an Advanced DnD module that I was able to convert to Pathfinder for play.  The original document is available free of charge.

So, three characters wake up in the pitch black with no clothing or items and must figure out what is going on.  They are:

 

LN Human Wizard (5) named Min-Te (played by Ian)

 

NN Human Rogue (7) named Mr. Mallory (played by Allan)

 

psychotic/paranoid Dwarf Rogue (6) named Grizzly (played by Dan B.).

Pictures and characters from Unusual Suspects by Frog God Games.

As they fumble around, meet, and greet, a scroll case is found and four doors are cardinally oriented with riddles on each.

After quickly solving the riddles, all four doors are opened and the party ventures fourth.  They deftly avoid certain doom as a “candlelight” from down a dark hallway (actually a will-o-wisp) is assumed to be dangerous.  A second exit from the room spills out into a mushroom chamber with huge mushrooms properly identified by Grizzly as shriekers.  The party decides to try another path, leading them to a falling stone block trap that – though properly identified – is not properly disarmed (natural 1 from Dan B. – the first of many this day) and crushes part of Grizzly.  This blocks their exit and they decide to pursue the final pathway.

Some bone weapons are found and the group discovers dungeon graffiti that looks like a kobold.  Upon marching forward, Grizz sets off a Glyph of Fear (properly identified – but not properly disarmed with yet another natural 1 from Dan B.)  Eventually, they make their way to the Kobold den.

Because the den is lit, the wizard can now read her scrolls, and starts off by casting invisibility. All three sneak past the shrieker sentinel into the compound where the Kobolds are mostly sleeping.  This is where things start to go really well for the party.  Four Kobolds are mercilessly murdered in their sleep with their own weapons (think Lord of the Rings, when the wraiths murder the “hobbits” in the Prancing Pony Inn of Bree).  Two cooks are taken down in a scene resembling Antonius Proximo’s death in Gladiator.  This epic series of stealth checks and cunning leave only women, children, the chief Kobold, and two guards.  The chief is dispatched where he sleeps with a coup-de-grace.  The two guards meet their end soon after.

The women and children Kobolds are quivering in a corner.  The party decides they may be useful in the dungeon as “scouts” for traps.  The den-mother – who will not parlay with them – begins to kill the remaining Kobolds.  In an attempt to stop her, Grizz throws a spear at her and accidentally hits a child Kobold, setting off his character’s PTSD.  A depraved and bloody struggle ensues, and the group is left with two women (tied with rope) and three children Kobolds (carried in a net). One female swears allegience to Mr. Mallory as he brandishes the Kobold chief’s weapons and killed the den mother.

They march out of the bloody remains of the Kobold den with vital equipment and weapons including several 2 gallon bladders of fish oil that will come in handy later.  They are able to fashion several torches.  They head towards another part of the cave that the Kobold women identified as “the badger’s lair”.

When Grizz encounters the badger (he was scouting ahead with his darkvision), it begins to royally ream him.  The wizard and Mr. Mallory tell the Kobolds to sit tight and run ahead.  A nasty battle ensues, ending with the wizard dumping fish oil on the badger and lighting it ablaze.  The badger flees further down the hallway and disappears around a corner.  Meanwhile one Kobold woman has fled right into the spores of a violet mushroom.  The party counts that as a “win” since they would have stumbled upon it if she hadn’t.

The party pushes forward pursuing the badger and find half of it in a pool of water.  They elect not to find out where the other half was and continue to a mushroom chamber with a dull red glow.  While foraging for mushrooms, the red glow emerges as a fire beetle and is put down as quickly as it was encountered.  The wizard notices a second red glow on the other side of the room and throws a rock.  It makes a cicada-type noise and they all begin to leave (rather than deal with another monster without healing capability).

The second fire beetle is a “breeder”.  It is a huge, egg-filled monstrosity that begins to infect the Kobolds with larva that resemble rot-grubs in their action.  The “hosts” begin to shamble towards the players as I play the sound effects from the movie “The Thing.”  This is quite disturbing to all the players as their “scouts” have become zombies.  The party flees down a random corridor.

 

One Kobold child is spared this fate by the wizard who is slowed considerably by the effort, but proclaims, “I need an apprentice!”  The party is eventually far enough ahead of the zombies and breeder that they feel safe.  That’s when an earthquake hits and from the collapsed roof emerges the breeder (as cued by the DM with “The Thing” sound effects).  Everyone runs except the wizard who has to carry his new found apprentice (though there was a 10 minute ethical dilemma about whether or not to leave the Kobold boy [named Dexter] to his own fate).  The wizard meets up with the other two party members several hundred yards down the hallway only to discover Dexter has a grub in his neck.  Before the wizard can save him, Dexter cries out “Mommy….[The Thing sounds]”.  Again, very disturbing.

At this point, the party has figured out that they just need to leave.  They avoid piercers, ropers, and end in a huge cavern with fresh air.  The only hurdle is a giant chasm separating them from the exit.  They seal where they came from with a “move dirt” spell, blocking the shamblers from gaining access to the room.

Mr. Mallory attempts to jump across and gets stuck to a Cave Fisher’s line that descends from a precipice above the fissure.  He is able to swing himself to the opposite ledge and cut the Fisher’s tendril and tumble onto the opposing ledge (with 3 HP to spare!)  Meanwhile, the wizard gets hit with a Fisher’s tendril (both Dwarf and wizard are standing too close to the ledge). Immediately after, the Dwarf gets hit with a tendril.  The wizard is able to cast spider climb, cut the tendril, and makes an epic climb check to grab the wall to save from falling.  The Dwarf cannot roll above a 5 for acrobatics and is unable to swing into position to escape.  Instead, he opts to fight the Cave Fishers.

 

Both Mr. Mallory and Min-te decide to leave the Dwarf (since they can’t really help) and exit to the surface.  Here’s where Grizz decides he’s had enough.  Dan B., having every attempt at anything this night thwarted by crap dice rolls, decides to die like the kings of old – funeral pyre.  Grizz gets pulled up over the ledge to face the Cave Fishers.  He slathers one with fish oil and generates a spark with his flint dagger.  He then attempts to rappel by jumping back down the fissure.  The tendril holding Grizz to the burning Cave Fisher is severed, and he falls 60 feet to the ledge adjoining the exit.  With some HP to spare, he gets up and walks out as a flaming Cave Fisher drops behind him to certain chasm doom.

They all survey the land and realize they are on a Pompeii-esque island with half the island erupting into flames and magma.  A port appears a mile or so away in a town through the woods.  The party heads that direction.  A few hundred yards out, they find footprints of someone carrying a heavy burden.  They pursue, believing this to be a re-supply opportunity.  A crazed slave with a sack of goods and covered in blood welcomes them as fellow slaves to join the revolt against the masters and head to the docks to escape.  A hearty “death to the masters” exchange later, they head to town together.  The escaped slave is eventually consumed by fire elementals that erupt out of the forest as the party snags the loot (bag filled with expensive stuff and gold looted from a nearby castle) and casts “wall of fog” to cover their tracks.

Upon reaching town, it is mayhem and the party avoids most trouble by following Mr. Mallory down back roads to a side exit of the city walls that leads to the docks.  They blend in as slaves and don’t catch too much trouble.  The main gates are blocked and terribly crowded with fleeing and enraged mobs of slaves.  The city is being consumed by fire as fire elementals begin taking the walls.

 

The side exit to the city walls is guarded by town guardsmen who are turning people away towards the main gates.  The party plans on bluffing the guards, but are presently surprised when Mr. Mallory gets a slew of salutes and is addressed as Captain Mallory.  The guards ask, “Are these people with you?” pointing at Min-te and Grizz (carrying the big bag of loot).

Capt. Mallory – played by Allan – responds with “Just the bag.”  We all had a good guffaw. Allan lets the other characters join Mallory. The party is allowed to re-supply, heal, armor up, and get an escort to the docks by guardsmen.  First they have to traverse the slums of the slaves.  Not two blocks from the city walls, the freshly armored and cleaned up party runs into an angry mob hacking “masters” limb from limb and impaling them in a group hysteria.  Grizz walks up to them and attempts the ol’ “death to the masters” hail, and continues on like it’s no big deal.  He is nearly mobbed as one peasant yells “MASTERS” and points at Grizz.  Quick feet and the local knowledge of Capt. Mallory deliver the party to a rooftop where the mob doesn’t follow.

The party uses gangways to cross from rooftop to rooftop until Grizz falls.  They escort him with crossbows as he ducks and runs through angry mobs and anarchy.  The party loses sight of him for a few rounds.  He fled into a house to find a doppelganger consuming a fresh victim.  The encounter is secretly resolved, at which time Grizz reappears and they continue to the docks.  There, they see a boat they must board to escape, currently being loaded by the slave lords with cherry-picked treasure from their reign.

An enemy spy is revealed in the escort guard’s ranks (the man who put Capt. Mallory in the dungeon with the other two characters)  who is pleading with Capt. Mallory to join forces and defeat the slave lords.  He offers his help in locating their original gear and defeating the slave lords.  The wizard decides to negotiate with her crossbow bolt and crits.  Then she loots his body and finds a pearl of fireball.

An epic fight between the “slave lords” and the party ensues.  Beginning with a dazzling of their guards, followed by immolation with fish oil, grease, and a well flicked burning cigarette.  The fight got pretty nasty with Wyyvern poison, drow poison, fireballs, immolation, and just plain knife to knife combat.  Eventually, the party gains the upper hand in combat.  A highlight was Capt. Mallory catching a rogue’s thrown dagger with his leather shield and throwing it back at the rogue (Big Trouble in Little China style).  The rogue dropped from the Wyyvern poison.

Then another earthquake hits, knocks the enemy wizard off the boat into the water, and opens a magma fissure from which emerges a familiar sound (The Thing).  The party flees to the boat – but not fast enough.  The wizard is caught with two larva and nearly dies of con damage as she falls into the water off the dock.  Meanwhile Capt. Mallory duels a drow ranger on the deck of the boat, and Grizz engages in hand-to-hand combat underwater with the enemy wizard.  The guard escort hustle with the loot to the ship, and two are sent to loot downed enemy bodies.

Eventually the wizard makes an epic save and spider climbs up the boat to safety.  Grizz also gets aboard.  Captain Mallory grabs a larva (spit from the breeder, but missed) from the ship’s deck and kicks it at the drow ranger.  It burrows.  He then yells, “THIS IS SPARTA!” and jumps to grab rigging and swing kick her ass off the boat.

The wizard manages to cast sleep on the breeder, but only after it has infected one of the guard escorts looting bodies on the dock.  Another guard drags him to the ship, but it is too late for his companion.  “The Thing” sounds erupt from the now zombie guard and it begins biting its once compatriot.  Grizz uses a gaff hook to grab the guard’s armor and attempts to drag him aboard.  The guard says, “No, sir. Just let me go” and unhooks the gaff from himself – much to the dismay of the wizard who wanted all the loot.  While the guard is being mauled by the zombie, Grizz yells, “What’s your name, we will remember your sacrifice.”  The guard responds, “My name is….. [The Thing screech]…”  as he turns to a breeder zombie. Very disturbing.

Finally, the party is able to cast off and set sail as the island burns like the old kings.  They have the treasure of a hundred kings on a galleon with two body guards.  Things end on a great note with the players and they hug and celebrate.  Then Dan B. hands me a note that says, “I kill them all in their sleep.” and we end the session.  Looks like the doppleganger won the slum encounter with Grizz. It figures; Dan B. had been rolling terribly all night…

I like to imagine the doppleganger gets to a nearby port – with all the other crew dispatched -and reaches up behind his back to scratch an itch.  There is a breeder larva in his skin that he’s unaware of (probably landed on the ship and wasn’t noticed).

“Welcome to Waterdeep Mr….?”

“It’s Mr….. [The Thing screech]…” (who says the TPK has to end with just the party?)