Return to the Known Lands - Sessions #22 and #23 - Damned Boots

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merias
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Return to the Known Lands - Sessions #22 and #23 - Damned Boots

Post by merias »

From https://smolderingwizard.wordpress.com/ ... ned-boots/ :

Dates: 2/20/21, 2/27/21
PCs:

Louis (FM 2)
Osan (Elf F/MU 2/1)
Omes (Half FM 2)
Arro (MU 1)
Habru (Cleric 2)

NPCs:

Habru’s war dog, named Dog
Horace – Habru’s retainer – Cleric 1
Bunco – Omes’s Knave

Hirelings:

Arvay – wagon driver
Samtik – porter
Durdoon – meatshield

Links to Previous Sessions

Session notes:

In the last session, the party discovered a dungeon tavern and befriended a group of stone-skinned warriors, the Kamenni. In these two sessions they continued exploring level one.

Heading north out of the caverns, they made their way through a locked door with the help of Arro’s knock scroll. On the other side of the door was a small finished area with several connected rooms. One of the rooms appeared to be an alchemy lab, which the party searched thoroughly, coming away with three potions. Louis tested one and determined it to be a flying potion. A western tunnel led to a boat launch which opened along an underground river.

Their was a fair bit of headroom above the river, so Louis thought it would be a good time to scout the river with his potion. He drank it and took off from the boat launch, flying low over the river and under a bridge, confirming the party’s suspicions that this river was the one they had crossed via a bridge in the last session. He followed the river, passing a side tunnel, then to a waterfall which dropped about 40 feet to a cave. Thinking that was at least level two, and not wanting to explore further alone, he flew back to the party.

While Louis was off flying around, Osan and the rest of the party explored a few tunnels off to the east. Osan’s Elvish senses alerted him to a secret door at the head of a staircase down. He opened it, and found a small room with a silver disc set into the center of floor. The disc was about a foot across, and had a number ‘3’ engraved in it. After some discussion, the party decided to leave the disc room and staircase for later exploration. When Louis returned from his flying sortie, the entire party headed back south, there was a tunnel they had yet to explore on the other side of the bridge

That tunnel south was narrow, about five feet wide, necessitating single file marching order. After a short distance, the tunnel opened into a small cavern. As they entered it, a group of five Orcs charged at the party from across the cavern, swords and spears in hand! As melee was joined, Habru cast a fear spell, and one of the Orcs fled north. The other four fell quickly and the party moved on after looting the bodies of any valuables.

After a quick break, the party headed south again into another unexplored tunnel. This one led to a long, narrow cavern whose entrance was blocked by a pile of rocks. They were able to move enough rocks to crawl up and in, again in single file. Inside the dark cave, against the far wall, were three black wooden coffins with broken lids. As the party formed up and moved closer, three undead creatures rose from the coffins and moved to attack. Habru and Horace both failed to turn the creatures, and the fight was on. The party prevailed, but Omes and Habru both felt themselves weakened by the creatures’ touch during the melee. After the battle, they were barely able to walk, and it was clear they would be doing no more fighting today.

A search of the cave revealed a cache of coins and a pair of boots under one of the coffins. Arro, thinking the boots magical, tried them on and quickly discovered that when he walked, the boots made a loud, thundering noise. They appeared to confer no benefit to the wearer. Of course Arro was unable to remove the boots, finding them quite stuck on his feet. What to do? The party had to get back to town and rest, but could not risk Arro’s boots alerting the wandering denizens of the dungeon. Thinking a minute, Arro summoned his retainer Durdoon, who was nice enough to give Arro a piggyback all the way back to Larm. Once in town, and with his share of the loot, Arro made a beeline for the temple, begging for a remove curse spell. An 800gp donation later, and thus quieted, he gave a sizeable bonus to Durdoon.

LL Notes:

The undead were wights, who drained three points of STR with each touch, weakening two of the PCs, who I ruled had enough weakness to make fighting dangerous (-2 to-hit and saves). The weakness was temporary however, with lost STR returning a few hours later.

The boots Arro found were Boots of Thundering, and of course quite cursed. It was quick thinking on his player’s part to have his hired mercenary carry him out of the dungeon. Arro left the boots in the town temple after having the remove curse spell cast upon them.

JimboJimbo
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Re: Return to the Known Lands - Sessions #22 and #23 - Damned Boots

Post by JimboJimbo »

Great write up. I do love cursed items. That was some very quick thinking by the player, too.

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