Murdicog's Manse Session 7: Towels, Treatise Trades, Treasure Troves, & Tiger Teeth
Players: Simon Vanade (Jake), Bekhtar Ziphar (Shy Owl), Talvthus Alyval (Oldhawkeyes), Grappadora Hamaqes (Jay_zer0), Osric of Shophalbelath (EvilTables), Buster Diamantis (mistuh)
Summary
Having acquired a barely-functional robot (dubbed "Lil R") during the last adventure, the party paid a visit to Bar Udartophir's local electronics enthusiast, The Electron Sovereign. Despite some initial curiosity about what Lil R might know, an offer of 2,500gp from the reclusive red Mage was enough to dispel lingering scruples about handing it over.
Ziphar, intrigued by the Pig Pulper the Ogre's reading material, suggested that they return to Murdicog's Manse to investigate. And so they did -- an uneventful day of walking found them approaching the Ogre gatekeeper's campfire.
Pig Pulper was perusing a copy of The Life & Great Battles of Odradeq the Mighty, lent to him by his friend Bunny Basher on floor 13. With minimal prompting, he enthusiastically expounded on conspiracy theories regarding Odradeq's death, allegedly at the hands of a Martian assassin. Sensing a kindred spirit, Grappadora traded his copy of Prof. Emeritus Multiplicar DuBoig's Thrice-drowned Eden to the Ogre.
Rather than pay the 5gp entry fee, the party returned via the psouthouest entrance. From the room with the dead palm trees, they explored eest into a bedchamber with a smashed & shredded four-poster bed. A linen closet contained 68 fancy towels, 4 embroidered "His" & 64 embroidered "Hers". In an adjoining room, Simon found a small wallet with spare change between the cushions of a torn-up couch.
Proceeding to the Knorth, the party found a branching loop. One path led to stairs going down, another terminated in a dead end with a canvas tent pitched in front of it.
Inside the tent, they found a horribly dismembered adventurer and a sack of splendid jewelry, including earrings, a torc, hairpins, a pendant, and an ornate tiara. Having hit the jackpot, they turned to leave, only to find themselves cornered by 5 small robots armed with electrified stun prods.
The noise made while dispatching the robots attracted the unusually strong Sabre-tooth Tiger in an adjoining room, which stealthily pounced as they were trying to leave. An epic struggle ensued, during which Talvthus luckily sustained only a minor bite. Some lucky hits from the party's well-equipped armigers drove it off, but the party gave chase, cornering it in its bone-strewn lair and finally slaying it.
The triumphant adventurers returned to Bar Udartophir toting jewelry, robot parts, a sabre-tooth tiger carcass, & a precarious stack of fluffy bath towels. Talvthus fashioned the tiger's pelt into a cape.
Aftermath
Treasure Found:
- 330sp
- 42gp
- Garnet earrings (700gp)
- Torc engraved with Old Zurthine blessings (2,000gp)
- Sapphire pendant (5,000gp)
- Coral earrings sculpted in the likeness of Dagon (1,100gp)
- Pair of platinum hairpins (1,100gp)
- Chatelaine Lumpinella's tiara (7,000gp)
Foes Encountered: 5 Small Robots (destroyed), Unusually large Sabre-tooth Tiger (slain)
Rumors:
- Bunny Basher the Ogre lives on level 13, and tends to bite off more than he can chew intellectually.
Deaths: None.
XP Awarded: From slaying foes: 3,000, from treasure: 50,925, divided 6 ways.
Notes
- Remember when I was worried about not providing enough treasure a few sessions ago? For the record, I rolled all treasure in this dungeon using the procedure in Underworld & Wilderness Adventures.
- I rolled maximum possible HP for the sabre-tooth tiger. Ended up not being that threatening due to low AC, although there was a real chance of killing Talvthus when the bite landed.
- It's funny -- this campaign takes place in the region I've been writing for the Antarctic Adventure Jam. It covers ~1,700 hexes, of which nearly 500 are keyed across 130ish pages of text. And yet they players keep going back into the dungeon, of which they have explored maybe 10%. Which seems like a waste on one level, but a) gaming is gaming is gaming and the dungeon crawling has been fun, and b) having all this other material written provides a wonderful amount of context for improvising off of very minimal dungeon room prompts. Whether or not players visit any of it directly, there's a huge field of lore to plug random encounters & vaguely sketched-out descriptions into. (C.f. the use of House Bekhtar lore to suss out the Brigands last session).