Tomb of the Serpent Kings Play Report 03
Continued from here. Where a new group coalesces in Blackcrossing and finds their way to the remains of a former adventuring party.
The Party
GoodEye, a treasure-hunting Barber-Surgeon with bod-mods.
Talon, an Outrider with a thirst for dark liquid.
Iwan, an elegant Half-Witch magnet for injury.
Vex, a Half-Witch and budding anthropologist.
Session 3:
As the rest of the party ate lunch, Vex found an eroded passage beneath some sort of Idol. The party descended deeper into the dungeon, but had to leave Buckwheat behind.
Beneath the grotesque, the party entered a hallway lined with statues of Snake-man warriors. Vex and GoodEye noticed a hidden door behind one of the statues, leading to some sort of guard chamber. Vex grabbed a Silver icon of a snake-man king, and GoodEye grabbed a surprisingly serviceable polearm resembling a billhook. The room seemed to spark an anthropological interest in Vex. Who were these snake-people, and why don't our histories tell of them?
The large Atrium at the end of the hall was also statue-dominated, but some of the statues carried not only implements of war, but of agriculture and torture. Iwan and Talon approached a dark pool in the center of the room. Talon had just noted that it smelled like licorice and was going to drink it, when a bodiless and mummified hand splashed out of the water towards his neck!
A second hand emerged and grasped Iwan above the ankle with supernatural strength. The party heard a loud Crack, and the half-witch yelled out in pain. GoodEye and Vex sprang into action. GoodEye pulled the hand from Talons throat, lobbing it up for Talon to draw his longsword and slice it in twain. Iwan desperately slashed at his legs with a dagger, but the hand deftly scurried off, only to be met with the impact of an ever-glowing Star-Iron mace that Vex had looted from a body in the False tomb above.
This whole session went a lot smoother rules-wise, and this combat was no exception. Still, there were a few valuable lesson to be learned:
First, Since the party approached the pool recklessly, I ruled that they automatically failed their initiative DEX save. (This was suggested by Dungeon Scrawler in the Cairn discord, which I found while searching keywords between this session and last.)
This let the claws attack first. Their first attack was enhanced in the converted statblock to simulate the players having their guards down. On doing this write-up I realized that I did not roll a d12, and instead rolled a d4 for their 'attach' attack, which is necessary to do their d8 'strangle'. Oh well!
They both rolled a 4, which for Talon only took his Hit protection down to 1. This means he had not taken a meaningful hit, just that it had attached and was ready to strangle him. Iwan only had 4 Hit Protection, which means we got to interact with the Scars Table! This is supposed to be rare so I was excited to see what the results were.
Iwan does not have armor, so the damage done determines the Scar: Broken Limb: Roll 1d6.
1-2: Leg
3-4: Arm
5: Rib
6: Skull
Once mended, roll 2d6. If the total is higher than your max HP, take the new result.Iwan rolled a 1, so his leg was broken.
When GoodEye pulled the claw off of Talon, I ruled the Talon was the most at risk, so he'd make a STR save, or take damage. He ultimately succeeded the roll, but I think damage was too big of a punishment for a roll like that. I think in the future I would give fatigue Giving out fatigue more liberally than damage creates incentive to camp and forces interesting decisions for inventory management.
When both Iwan and Vex attacked the other claw, they both rolled their damage dice and took the higher value. The helped determine the fiction of the situation, I just decided whomever did the higher damage dealt the final blow.
Now that the danger had passed, GoodEye took a look at Iwan's leg. It had been broken, so GoodEye bandaged it up with a make-shift splint. It would take weeks to heal, unless by magic. Talon and Iwan hobbled back up to Buckwheat to rest shortly before moving on.
Since they used resources for a splint, let them know he could walk / hobble, and that I'd figure out how I'd rule recovery over the next week. Iwan's player is excited to mend the leg, because of the potential for an HP increase, but without magical means it could take up to a month. If the players retreat to Blackcrossing we can play out downtime actions.
The ruling I came up with is that his speed is halved, and in-fiction situations that may have been easy without a roll may require a DEX roll until mended. Additionally, it will take 1d4 weeks without paying for magical healing of some sort.
The logic behind scars improving you, is that you essentially survived in a situation that could have been lethal, so you could learn to be better at avoiding that thing. Hit Protection (HP) is an abstraction for how well you can avoid lethal damage under pressure, instead of the typical "how many times you can get hit" from other elfgames. As such, you regain your HP after resting for a dungeon turn, which is about 10 minutes. Lingering can trigger a roll on the dungeon event table, though.
Meanwhile, Vex and GoodEye discovered a trap door hidden beneath a clay statue in a storage room attached to the Atrium. GoodEye did not like the look of it at all, but Vex was sure that it would lead to more treasure, like his silver icon. GoodEye decided to meet back up with the rest of the party in the Atrium while Vex entered the trap door alone.
Iwan decided he was okay to keep adventuring, and the three rendezvoused back in the Atrium. There was one wooden door, four plain stone doors, and one stone door that depicted snakes raining from the heavens. The party knew that previous adventurers had found gold medallions in the false tomb, so decided to test their luck opening the doors.
The first to be opened was a plain stone door. Hoping to avoid any more surprises, the party entered the room cautiously. The smell of ozone was overwhelming, and there was a round electrum plate aimed at the doorway. Iwan conspired with his familiar, and the Raven walked to the sarcophagus at the end of the hall. The party noticed one stone slightly depress into the ground, tipping them off that it was a pressure plate trap. Avoiding the trap, they found the stone sarcophagus empty. Talon was sure the pressure plate was the key to another secret door, but the others convinced him not to attempt pressing it.
As they exited, Vex had returned with the warning that something big was chained up in the darkness below them.
Ominous. Vex only had his faintly lit mace for light, so even though he could travel alone without a torch and not get panicked, he couldn't really see anything beyond a few feet.
All together, the party moved to another plain stone door. This room looked identical to the first, so Iwan had his Raven search the floor once again. No such pressure plate existed in this hall. The tomb looked more scrappy, a rush-job in comparison to the first. Assuming it would be just another empty sarcophagus, Vex and GoodEye left to check out the wooden door.
Within the Tomb, Iwan opened the stone sarcophagus, revealing the badly mummified remains of a snake-man ruler. wrappings were deteriorated and the bottom was filled with dark black ichor that smelled of licorice.
The ichor suddenly lurched, rearing up and sloshing onto Iwan!
"The Mummified remains of Franbinzar, the last ruler of the fortress. The Mummification did not go well. He counts as a Black Pudding and will lurch to attack anyone who opens the coffin"
This game rules.