Blackmoor Campaign pt. 9.

[William]

During our session on the 20th of April the PCs and their three henchmen (one of who was badly injured during the last session) were given the the option of continuing with their investigation into the mysterious mound in the fens, and the apparent Lizard Man lair within there. They were victorious in their battle with the Lizard Men who came out of the mound, but they had the dilemma of whether to enter or not, as from their point of view there may have been a lot more inside.

Due to one of their number being severely injured the henchmen have lost a lot of morale (secretly determined by myself with the dice). They refused to go first into the mound, but did agree to enter as backup for a cut of whatever treasure is found therein. Ari (the 2nd level Halfling Thief) threw down a burning torch into the entrance at the top of the mound, revealing an evil Lizard Man and his female partner waiting to ambush whoever entered their lair, so Abbie fired down an arrow with her Longbow, causing the Lizard creatures to retreat into the underground tunnels below. Abbie, Ari, Percival (the Cleric), and the two uninjured henchmen quickly clambered the rough stairs down into the lair and made swift work of the would-be ambush in melee combat, whilst Kay, Stefan, and the injured henchman waited outside. From a superficial inspection of the beginnings of the lair it became apparent to the adventurers that there is a series of dirt tunnels and burrows inside, though the exact size of it was still to be determined at that point. They agreed amongst themselves that Stefan should return to the Keep with the injured henchman for some medical help (Stefan has only fledgling medical skill as a 2nd level Sage), whilst Kay joins them in an exploration of the lair. Stefan can make his way back to the mound immediately afterwards, and he will be given a share of the treasure for his troubles.

The adventurers began their exploration and mapping of the burrows beneath the ground, initially finding a quite lengthy tunnel with large, gradual dip along it from one side to the other, presumably to collect rain water during storms. They soon discovered on the other side of the tunnel that the lair is only of modest size - in total five roughly dug out rooms, though all the rooms were set back from the dip along a further winding dirt tunnel. There were three rooms for sleeping in, one general living room with storage for food and weapons, plus one room with eggs. Two more evil Lizard Women were encountered and slain, though Ari suffered some wounds of a modest nature, plus eight of the Lizard creatures offspring were found in a room situated furthest into the lair. The offspring were spared death and it was agreed to let them go once the lair had been ransacked for treasure, but all six eggs were destroyed by the adventurers using oil and a tinderbox. They found the loot hidden in the egg area - 112 copper pieces, 186 silver pieces, a gold Ingot, plus two potions. They all agreed that Kay should sell the Ingot back at the Keep, as being the Merchant he could probably get the highest amount of money for it, and to also to get the potions examined by a Magic User as soon as possible.

Upon making their way out of the lair Abbie (now controlled in turns by the players) used her tracking skils to see where any Lizard Man tracks may lead. She soon discovered that all tracks led to the south of the valley, but also that the tracks became too hard to follow once the edge of the fens had been reached. They let the Lizard Man young all leave and they immediately all fled south. At this time Stefan started to return ( and his player made his way back into the room) but unfortunately the summer weather (as determined secretly by me with dice) started to turn to black clouds, thunder, and rain, threatening to make a mess out of the already swampy fens. The group then decided to return to the Keep to heal any wounds (Ari in particular had suffered some hit point loss), and also to sell the gold Ingot and take shelter from the coming rain storm.
Kay managed to sell the Ingot for a total of 100 gold pieces, but there was unfortunately no Magic User within the Keep to examine the potions. The group have wisely refused to take the potions orally until they find someone to suss out the nature of them. Treasure was split between the group and money from the Ingot was also split too.

Upon recovery from battle and the cessation of the storm the group set off back out during the morning of the following day. They had re-equipped themselves with fresh rations and arrows, though they still have a good amount of ammunition for the Muskets and Arquebus. The whole of the fens was drenched from the rain storm, and small lakes had formed here and there. They then vowed to go back to the entrance of the cave that they had found upon the crest of the hill on the wooded southern side of the valley.
Upon reaching the mouth of the cave they soon discovered a smallish cavern of about 30 feet by 10 feet, and two tunnels leading off on each side, both tunnels leading downwards gradually. For the first time the players had to make a map of a cavern area, and at first they found it to be time consuming, though they started to make an easier job of it after maybe 45 minutes to an hour. They picked the right tunnel and made their way down 60' only to discover another cavern about 40' by 20' in size. Leading from the cavern was another tunnel that descended about another 90' into the earth, coming out upon an area completely flooded with water, and of interminable size due to what they could see underground with their lanterns. They determined that there may be possibly two or three exits upon the other side of a cavern possibly 60' across, but none of them wanted to swim across (and who can blame them!) as there could be anything in the water. They retreated back up the way they came and started making their way down the left tunnel.
The left tunnel took them 220' down into the earth. They came upon another cavern roughly 40' by 70' in size. From within the cavern they could hear the distant sound of what seemed to be stone and earth being decimated, a large hissing, and also the sound of what could have possibly been Dwarven voices. Some smaller side caverns were explored to the side of the main cavern (connected by short tunnels), and in one cavern that was set back along a series of caverns chained together by a tunnel they discovered a collection of tools, various kinds of metals, and a large water holder made from thick, hard glass. This then left them with one option - take the only remaining way out of the large 40' by 70' cavern, which was a tunnel leading further down into the earth from which the noises were emanating. How much further this tunnel went they had no way of knowing.

We called it a day here until next week as a few hours had passed since we began gaming. The mapping of the cave system proved to be much more time consuming than I had originally thought it would (the Lizard Man lair was humanoid constructed and much more straight forward), but all were in agreement that progress had been made since they started, and that they would be more proficient at it during the next session.

Bill