Wednesday, December 15, 2010

Q1 - The Evil Temple of Fraz-Urb'luu (Part 9)

The Dungeon of Fraz-Urb'luu's Temple
First, a word about the Dungeon Encounter's table.  There are a number of numbered encounters, but I had kind of a random/sandbox-y thing going on here.  Every so often, I'd roll a d6.  On a 1-4, I'd roll on the chart.  Lots of undead.  What's a "dink"?  What do you think it is?  I used to make stuff up on the spot.  Skelter was from The Secret of Bone Hill.  My friend Alan had run my monk through that adventure a few months before.  
D-1 "Stairwell Down:  This is the place the characters will fall to if they blow it in room 1-4.  If the fall doesn't kill them then they are free to proceed on."
The PCs did fall and the fall didn't kill them.
D-2 "Wight:  One wight lives in here.  He was a follower of the high priest.  It still wears tattered red clothes and armor.  He has an evil bastard sword, but will not use it.  Not being alive, the ring of vampiric regeneration it wears will not help it.   As the party enters, it will drop the arm it is eating and attack.  The arm's fingers grasp and wiggle though it is severed."
The party did not encounter the wight.  If they had, it would have probably spelled the end of them.
D-3 "Green Slime:  It is stuck on the south wall.  While the characters fight it, they will be bothered by a couple of dinks."  
Here are those "dinks" again.  In this context, I guess they might be like boggarts or imps or some other meddlesome creature that is less dangerous and more a nuisance to the party.
D-4 "Demon Skeleton:  This hideous bat winged skeleton is all bones except for its black head and flame red eyes (can you say cut-rate Balrog?).  It is clawing at the wall, digging out a skeleton.  It will screech and attack the party on sight.  The screech will make the party stand in fear or run away (even chance of both) unless they save vs. magic.  The skeleton wears a bracelet which has a single gem left in one of many mounts.  The gem is a 6d fireball."
The party did encounter this skele-demon and they ganged up and defeated it.  The gemstone went into Skanderbag's duffel for use later at the Citadel of Urk.
D-5 "A single dretch is hiding here from the demon in D-4.  If encountered, it will run away until cornered.  Then it will cast stinking cloud and run past the puking party.  It has no treasure."
I liked the monsters from Tsojcanth A LOT!  I talk about it here.  Heck, that's where Fraz-Urb'luu is from.  I never actually ran the adventure though...
D-6 "Giant Space Cockroach:  This beast is AC 2 and has 50 hp.  It does 2d8 damage for its vicious bite.  Bones of females are scattered about the room.  The doors are made of heavy bronze and are quite sturdy.  Scared of fire.  <--- note the emphasis here!
Wow.  There's a great story here.  If you recall from Part 2,  I mentioned that atop the pyramid-like temple there was an altar.  This altar was enchanted, like the altar in 3-5, to teleport its victim to the dungeon.  Well, at one point some of the party left the main level of the temple and decided to try and enter from the top.  This group was Sharky and Doorknob.  Brash and Skanderbag took a more typical route.  Well, Sharky and Doorknob got to the top of the temple and triggered the illusion.  They were brave (but also a little foolish) and they charged the (illusion) of Fraz-Urb'luu planning to go out with a fight.  Sharky was always one to swashbuckle a bit and so he jumped atop the altar for a better swipe at the demon lord.  POOF!  Doorknob followed.  POOF-2!

They found themselves in the room with the giant space cockroach!  Well, let's get the heck out of here.  The bronze doors were heavy and I decided they were locked from the other side, so they dashed across the room toward the door to D-7.  The cockroach is the "lock" for these doors; they opened easily...
D-7 "Cells:  These are sturdy lock and key, steel bar cells.  The bars are set deep within the floor and ceiling.  This is where defeated characters from 1-6 will be teleported.  Victims are locked up individually.  The lettered cells contain (a) a lizardman, Graash (love those double A's), (b) a dretch, cowardly and (c) a dead ogre.
...Sharky and Doorknob slam the door shut and examine their surroundings.  They realize the dretch is not worth rescuing and the ogre is dead.  What about this lizardman?  He speaks common AND he claims to be a shaman!  He's worth the risk!

Sharky busts out the vial of acid that he bought for use against Skanderbag's familiar and he dissolves the lock.  Graash is grateful and he joins the party!

Sharky decides that a giant insect would be scared of fire (dumb animal) so he lights up some torches and the trio throw the doors wide....  Well, it sounded good to me so I let it fly.  :)  I liked it so much that I ret-conned my adventure.  In the scan, you can see that I more or less scribbled "scared of fire" in the key.  Even early in my DMing career, I was flexible with my adjudication.  If the players had a good idea, I'd steal it on the spot and substitute it for my own.

It's funny how often they got things right!  LOL!
D-8 "Big Cells:  (a) contains a lamia, (b) a chasme.
The players never opened this door.

More to come!

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