INTO THE ODD session 2: Escaping the Iron Coral
This session's players were Dan playing Picklow, Olivia playing Felora, and Chris playing Chips Parfait. Jeff wasn't available to play, so we decided that his PC Harold had fallen into a narcoleptic stupor after eating the weird green bead. He was dragging along with the party but not acting in any meaningful way. His arcanum, the walking stick with Pale Flame ability, was passed amongst the other PCs during this session, and each of them had a chance to try to use it (it actually proved extremely useful later).
We picked up with the party investigating the sound they heard in area 9. It was a random encounter monster, the Sprayer Thing, a hulking toad-like creature. They surprised it as it was peering into the shaft, and Chris had the idea to use the arcanum to cattle-prod it and push it down the hole. Good player skill, so I ruled that Chips could make a STR check to succeed, which he did, and they pushed the monster to its death before it could attack.
High on success, they opened the door to area 10, and found the "dryer room" filled with empty cages. They activated a trap which blasted them all with heat doing damage each round, and due to unfortunate dice rolls 2 of the 3 PCs ended up critically wounded and down. We were looking at a tragic TPK when Chips made another great STR save to grab both of them by the collars and pull them out. They figured out that the heat blast was a drying mechanism and that the toad thing was probably in the cage, meant to be dried into the jerky found in area 5 (a great deduction, which I had not picked up when reading the text).
After recovering from their wounds, they really wanted to go through the dryer room, but the heat ray was still on. They tried throwing various things into the room to shut the cage door and deactivate it, but failed. Eventually, Chips swathed himself in clothes as a makeshift fire suit and rushed in to shut the gate, taking no damage due to a DEX save.
They entered area 12, and discovered a small shadowy form hiding in the cave to the SW. It was Pentreach's map-making buddy Humphrey, who turned out to be a muppet-like animated creature known as a Mockery (giving some more info on the setting). Humphrey showed them his incomplete map of the Iron Coral, and tried to teach them how to draw basic maps in a pointcrawl style. I shared the image on Zoom and the players had fun trying to figure out what path they had taken and where they should go next.
The party was lingering due to being fascinated with Humphrey, so I called for a random encounter roll indicating an encounter. The table told me "Lost Fisherman, 4hp"... So presto we met a new NPC: Samford Montane, a grizzled and confused sailor who got lost in the Iron Coral. The PCs decided to befriend him, hoping to use his boat to get back to Bastion. I played Samford with a crazed Irish sea-captain voice and described as like a bearded Willem Dafoe. I even showed them some pics from The Lighthouse to help with characterization.
Now with Humphrey, Samford, and the semi-conscious Harold in tow, they ventured North into area 11, where a large pipe was spewing foam, filing up the passage to area 13. They activated an alarm with a recorded voice in an unknown language. For some reason Samford could translate it as a warning: "Abandon structure: protection measures launched." They decided it was time to leave the dungeon entirely, and considered proceeding North through the foam, but feared it was too dangerous, so they opted to go around the way they came to find their way back to the exit.
They traced their steps back to area 9, but not before Samford's curiosity got the best of him and he re-activated the dryer room heat trap, burning himself only.
They were heading North but couldn't resist peeking at area 18, where they found shimmering golden air and two mysterious doors, one with a black bolt and the other with a gold sun icon. They were trying to figure out how to open the doors, unsuccessfully. Chips tried to use the Pale Flame to heat up the bolt icon, but the activation of the arcanum interacted with the air, and it coalesced into a Glimmering Woman, who brutally attacked Chips, shoving him out of the room. Samford began screaming insanely about the Ban-Shee and the party fled out of the room, where she could not follow.
On their way out they found the secret passage through area 6 to area 7, and found a room with yellow slime-covered walls and a large pulsating sac in the middle of the room. They surmised that it would be foolish to touch the slime, and they had to restrain Samford from touching it as he was ranting and raving like a madman. They briefly went back into area 4, but a random encounter meant that it now contained a large metal crate which wasn't there before, and the crate was seen to move slightly. They noped away and decided to check out the mysterious area to the East before trying to escape back to their boat.
They entered the large area 14, and Felora investigated the large glass water-filled dome in the center, which shattered unleashing a Huge Worm, the big boss monster of the Iron Coral. This was a longer combat, about 5-6 rounds and taking 5-10 minutes. They tossed fire oil on it which was instrumental in killing it, but not before it swallowed first Samford and then Picklow. Luckily the others were able to pull their companions back out of the worm's mouth after they dispatched it with fire and sword.
Tired but now lusting for treasure, they went through the massive doors to the North into the mysterious area 15, which led to a major find. Within were 5 Feeble Husks, pale, barely-breathing alien humanoids, like the dead one they saw earlier. Each was holding a golden sphere. They were easy enough to kill, but the spheres proved hard to recover, as each PC upon grabbing one had to make a hard WIL save or be compelled to stay in the room and sit on a chair, slowly transforming into a husk themself. They tried various things but eventually used the Pale Flame arcanum to heat up the sphere whenever a PC was becoming entranced; the pain caused them to drop it and snap out of their trance, allowing another try. A genius plan, and they recovered all 5 spheres in due order. Picklow was able to appraise their value at 10 Guilders total, which would pay off 10% of their massive debt to Korgen Von Klaw. So an excellent haul!
From there, they decided they wanted nothing to do with the large glass wall to the South, and they proceeded back out, avoiding the weird crate which had appeared in area 4. They grabbed the end of the rope sticking out the chute opening, and Matilda the mule pulled them all back up to area 1. They emerged out to the landing to get their boat, and Samford was surprised that his own vessel was nowhere to be found... how long had he been down there, anyway??
Total session time 2h 45m.
We picked up with the party investigating the sound they heard in area 9. It was a random encounter monster, the Sprayer Thing, a hulking toad-like creature. They surprised it as it was peering into the shaft, and Chris had the idea to use the arcanum to cattle-prod it and push it down the hole. Good player skill, so I ruled that Chips could make a STR check to succeed, which he did, and they pushed the monster to its death before it could attack.
High on success, they opened the door to area 10, and found the "dryer room" filled with empty cages. They activated a trap which blasted them all with heat doing damage each round, and due to unfortunate dice rolls 2 of the 3 PCs ended up critically wounded and down. We were looking at a tragic TPK when Chips made another great STR save to grab both of them by the collars and pull them out. They figured out that the heat blast was a drying mechanism and that the toad thing was probably in the cage, meant to be dried into the jerky found in area 5 (a great deduction, which I had not picked up when reading the text).
After recovering from their wounds, they really wanted to go through the dryer room, but the heat ray was still on. They tried throwing various things into the room to shut the cage door and deactivate it, but failed. Eventually, Chips swathed himself in clothes as a makeshift fire suit and rushed in to shut the gate, taking no damage due to a DEX save.
They entered area 12, and discovered a small shadowy form hiding in the cave to the SW. It was Pentreach's map-making buddy Humphrey, who turned out to be a muppet-like animated creature known as a Mockery (giving some more info on the setting). Humphrey showed them his incomplete map of the Iron Coral, and tried to teach them how to draw basic maps in a pointcrawl style. I shared the image on Zoom and the players had fun trying to figure out what path they had taken and where they should go next.
The party was lingering due to being fascinated with Humphrey, so I called for a random encounter roll indicating an encounter. The table told me "Lost Fisherman, 4hp"... So presto we met a new NPC: Samford Montane, a grizzled and confused sailor who got lost in the Iron Coral. The PCs decided to befriend him, hoping to use his boat to get back to Bastion. I played Samford with a crazed Irish sea-captain voice and described as like a bearded Willem Dafoe. I even showed them some pics from The Lighthouse to help with characterization.
Now with Humphrey, Samford, and the semi-conscious Harold in tow, they ventured North into area 11, where a large pipe was spewing foam, filing up the passage to area 13. They activated an alarm with a recorded voice in an unknown language. For some reason Samford could translate it as a warning: "Abandon structure: protection measures launched." They decided it was time to leave the dungeon entirely, and considered proceeding North through the foam, but feared it was too dangerous, so they opted to go around the way they came to find their way back to the exit.
They traced their steps back to area 9, but not before Samford's curiosity got the best of him and he re-activated the dryer room heat trap, burning himself only.
They were heading North but couldn't resist peeking at area 18, where they found shimmering golden air and two mysterious doors, one with a black bolt and the other with a gold sun icon. They were trying to figure out how to open the doors, unsuccessfully. Chips tried to use the Pale Flame to heat up the bolt icon, but the activation of the arcanum interacted with the air, and it coalesced into a Glimmering Woman, who brutally attacked Chips, shoving him out of the room. Samford began screaming insanely about the Ban-Shee and the party fled out of the room, where she could not follow.
On their way out they found the secret passage through area 6 to area 7, and found a room with yellow slime-covered walls and a large pulsating sac in the middle of the room. They surmised that it would be foolish to touch the slime, and they had to restrain Samford from touching it as he was ranting and raving like a madman. They briefly went back into area 4, but a random encounter meant that it now contained a large metal crate which wasn't there before, and the crate was seen to move slightly. They noped away and decided to check out the mysterious area to the East before trying to escape back to their boat.
They entered the large area 14, and Felora investigated the large glass water-filled dome in the center, which shattered unleashing a Huge Worm, the big boss monster of the Iron Coral. This was a longer combat, about 5-6 rounds and taking 5-10 minutes. They tossed fire oil on it which was instrumental in killing it, but not before it swallowed first Samford and then Picklow. Luckily the others were able to pull their companions back out of the worm's mouth after they dispatched it with fire and sword.
Tired but now lusting for treasure, they went through the massive doors to the North into the mysterious area 15, which led to a major find. Within were 5 Feeble Husks, pale, barely-breathing alien humanoids, like the dead one they saw earlier. Each was holding a golden sphere. They were easy enough to kill, but the spheres proved hard to recover, as each PC upon grabbing one had to make a hard WIL save or be compelled to stay in the room and sit on a chair, slowly transforming into a husk themself. They tried various things but eventually used the Pale Flame arcanum to heat up the sphere whenever a PC was becoming entranced; the pain caused them to drop it and snap out of their trance, allowing another try. A genius plan, and they recovered all 5 spheres in due order. Picklow was able to appraise their value at 10 Guilders total, which would pay off 10% of their massive debt to Korgen Von Klaw. So an excellent haul!
From there, they decided they wanted nothing to do with the large glass wall to the South, and they proceeded back out, avoiding the weird crate which had appeared in area 4. They grabbed the end of the rope sticking out the chute opening, and Matilda the mule pulled them all back up to area 1. They emerged out to the landing to get their boat, and Samford was surprised that his own vessel was nowhere to be found... how long had he been down there, anyway??
Total session time 2h 45m.
Comments
Post a Comment