Session 10: Bugs and Slugs, Oh My!

The above is the "troglodyte lair" that the party investigated last Friday, with dotted line beginning at the mid-left and moving around through numbers 1 through 7. White indicates traversable space, grey the walls that were identified and black equals unknown. Thus in the bottom right corner, where black cuts across the white space, that isn't a wall, that's just as far as the party's torches was able to reveal. The gray smattering about the area is "rubble." The party's last position is shown on the map; an enlarged version of that is given below.

The constructing occupants, orcs, abandoned this catacomb 400 years ago, due to dwindling population and, likely, genetic issues, not that a 13th century orc could have understood the latter as anything except a lot of stillbirths and monsters from inbred parents who can't seem to produce healthy children. Even orcs must obey the laws of DNA.

The party fought (1) two giant ticks [AC 4,1 HD,#AT 1,D 1-4] and [AC 3,2 HD,#AT 1,D 1-4, blood drain]; (2) three giant centipedes [AC 8,1/4 HD,#AT 1,D 1, poison]; (3) two giant cockroaches [AC 5,1 HD,#AT 1,D 1-6]; (4) two more centipedes; (5) eleven giant cockroaches; (6) one carrion crawler [AC 5,4+1 HD,#AT 8,D 1-3]; and then (7) two more carrion crawlers. I took a screenshot of that last before the combat started.

The party had been game to fight everything up to this point, but their hit points were being winnowed down and at the sight of the two crawlers, they decided, after a lot of resistance, to give it up and withdraw. Pandred did not withdraw far enough, however, and got caught in an attack; worse, he was paralysed by that attack. So the party changed their minds and rushed forward to save him.

Before the battle was over, Pandred had been dragged by Edvard down from 1417, where he was stunned, to his position after. Zoltan had been paralysed also. Arduin the druid had succeeded in lighting up the two crawlers with faerie fire and Ti had drunk a super-heroism potion that elevated him to 8th level. He was able to clock the one crawler but he has been repeatedly dropping and breaking weapons since they left Budapest, so that he was fighting hand to hand with a javelin at the end here (rolling to see if it would break after every attack). It did break before the other crawler was killed, but Arduin and Lexent, with help from Mikael's good dart throwing, were able to succeed in ridding the world of that one also.

The words "3 load" refers to three rounds loading a heavy crossbow, which Oddsdrakken could do but he could not fire it; Edvard took a shot but missed with it. A hit might have done the crawler in, as heavy crossbows in my game do 2d6+1 damage (3-13).

Earlier, when fighting the 11 cockroaches, five of them had swarmed onto Pandred (I allow up to eight attacks on a hex by small swarming creatures, and giant cockroaches are just 40 lbs.), causing 26 damage including one crit that did 12. This was enough to cause even the rollicking 5th level to slow down... but I think the two carrion crawlers at last taught the party a little humility. Either run away clean or get on with it. They dithered trying to decide and it almost got Pandred killed.

I think, except for that one cockroach hit, that it was one of my worst nights for die rolling, ever. I rolled only one critical the whole night, through all the fights, while with the first carrion crawler I managed to hit only twice in 13 rolls. Egregious!

Zoltan, after all the experience from the different creatures — there was no treasure for the night — went up a level to fourth. He'd missed a running so it took him, again, eight runnings to climb from 1st to 4th. That even though he needed less than Ti the running before (Ti is a fighter), the experience system awards fighting... so fighters usually just make more experience during combats. 

Lexent went up to fifth level and got the henchman that he had rolled initially when he joined the game in the 1st session, back in February. That was from the player not realizing that he could import his character from the old Juvenis campaign where he had run Lexent in Norway. I had not realising the two were the same player... the internet, nyet? 

Anyway, I let the player put Matyas down until Lexent got to 5th, and then he could have Matyas as his henchfolk. The rest of the party all got a lot closer to their next level, doing pretty well. And even though it was just little fights, they declared the game to be very successful because it just felt like the fights folded one onto the other in a rational, reasonable way, so that it wasn't, "Oh my God, we have to fight another group of bugs!" It was more along the lines of searching the well and finding that it had centipedes in it, and searching the bench and finding there were cockroaches under it, in the manner of one long fight. The party was also impressed at the size of the dungeon as they roamed through it; they have not explored it all, as the map above shows.

The game is supposed to end at 11 p.m. Eastern. We ran 40 minutes overtime to finish off the two carrion crawler attack.