Castle Mordengard Session 4
This one is from a duet session with one player controlling four characters.
Start Date: 1/20/1025 End Date: 1/20/1025
Members of the expedition: Alex Muskabadon, veteran; Aristophanes Marx, medium; Quovid Rex, veteran, Wallop Brabazon, acolyte
Summary
The foursome began in Mitochondrion, and after hiring & equipping two spearmen wasted no time in hitching a ride on the chairlift to Mt. Mordengard.
They entered through the typical Northeastern entrance and despite struggling with the first door proceeded quickly to a large north-south passage. 4 Silver Skrogs were encountered and two were killed. The slain skrogs were shorn of their silver pelts.
Wallop noticed an unusual section of wall & marked it with a chewed-up piece of bubble gum.
They proceeded to the room stacked full of Buster Oakshotte’s Big Book of Boorish Buffoonery and found four guffawing members of the Quadratic Brotherhood. Though the ice was broken with a well-chosen joke, the adventurers did not linger to investigate the Brothers’ peculiar ideology.
Advancing North through the copper double-doors, they passed a tattered painting of a skeleton. Further north, they encountered seven bandits belonging to the Concavitan Communist Party in the midst of a self-criticism session. Successful use of Spell of Somnolence by Aristophanes allowed their quick dispatch, and from their corpses the party retrieved 19 hours of labor vouchers and a carton of cigarettes (Bingabandari’s Finest brand).
Exploring further, they ran into 10 skeletons, turning 7 and killing 3. This room had chanterelles growing, and the party was able to recover two pounds for sale or consumption.
In a circular room containing a glowing pentagram, they encountered 6 ghostly bathers, and were castigated for their lack of hygiene.
Proceeding to the West, they encountered & killed 4 Morlocks and had a friendly encounter with an adventuring party led by The Tide Emanation, a Proboscidean.
In this area, they passed an unusual door painted with an icon of a mitre-clad man, one hand raised in a gesture of benediction, the other lowered & holding a ring of keys. Behind it was a spiral ramp in a vast shaft (seemingly without limit up or down) lined with polychromatic doors. The orange door immediately to the right led them to a gym, where they recovered a potion of Enlarge Deltoids. When they tried the sixth door after the one they entered through (dark blue), they found themselves emerging from an alley in a strange town called Macaulay’s Motte, where a large concrete construct apparently consumed isotopes and produced centralized municipal heating.
Finally, they tried the cobalt blue door four the the left of the door through which they entered and found themselves in Lower Slark. Electing not to stay, they re-entered Castle Mordengard and proceeded Southeast, encountering a room lined with tapestries depicting various electron orbital diagrams and containing three 9” clay idols. They tied ten of the tapestries into bundles and set the hirelings to dragging them.
On the way out, they passed through a mirrored hall and determined that one of the mirrors could be tilted up. Behind it was a small niche with a vial labeled Osmium-190 and a banded agate.
They were able to escape the dungeon unaccosted and returned to Mitochondrion.
Deaths: None
Foes Encountered: 4 Silver Skrogs (2 killed), 4 Quadratic Brothers, 7 Bandits (Vanguardist) (7 killed), 10 skeletons (3 killed), 6 Ghostly Bathers, 4 Morlocks (4 killed)
Treasure Recovered: 2 Silver Skrog pelts worth 300ѣ, 19 hours of labor vouchers worth 38ѣ, Carton of Bingabandari’s Finest cigarettes worth 150ѣ, 2 lbs. Chanterelle mushrooms worth 100ѣ, Potion of Enlarge Deltoids, 3 9" idols, 10 tapestries worth 600ѣ, 1 banded agate worth 1,000ѣ, Osmium-190, totaling 505ѣ allotted to each participant after deducting 1/6th hireling shares.
Experience Points: 1,600 experience from killing 16 HD, 404 from retrieved treasure for 2,004 total.
Notes
- The spiral room with the doors is the High Fane of St. Ogilev, a demiplane associated with the Hierophant Tarot card that has only a 1% chance to appear... had to improvise a bit but it was well-recieved so I might up the odds of appearing slightly.
- We tested a new d6-only skirmish combat system written by my co-ref (and this session's player). It slaps and I'm hoping to share it here with his permission & after some refinement.
- We were in a coffee shop, so I had to pack a more minimal setup. I used old wargame chits as minis & highly recommend it for running tactical combat in a confined space.
- Ancient idols smaller than 1' x 1' x 1' are technically illegal in The Concavity.