Murdicog's Manse Session 8: Defeating a Droid, Dealing a Hand, & Dapping up Diomedes
Players: Bekhtar Ziphar (Shy Owl), Grappadora Hamaqes (Jay_zer0), Pinion Zugzwang (Kwall)
Summary
After nine weeks spent leveling up, three adventurers gathered to venture back into Murdicog's Manse. It was decided that the goal of this expedition would be to locate doors for the four color-coded keys from Hannibal Brompp's room.
After brief deliberation, they decided to enter via the narrow cave passage on the psouthouest side. They attempted to go directly to the stairs down but the appearance of 6 Small Robots forced them to circumnavigate.
Once down the stairs, they began to map out a previously-unexplored level.
Down one corridor, they met a bald, affectless man in a black jumpsuit. He requested directions to the nearest conurbation (ideally within a reasonable distance of a subterranean osmium deposit), and drew a laser pistol when the party attempted to demand a fee for providing directions. Ziphar took at fairly serious laserburn but survived. Once in melee range, the party immediately cut down the mysterious man, who turned out to be an Android.
In some adjoining rooms, the adventurers found four Gnomes playing Xeroian hold-'em in a wooden crate. The Gnomes agreed to deal them in and Grappadora ended up claiming the entire pot. Despite taking offense at the minor faux pas of conflating them with Ambrose the Pnome, the Gnomes agreed to provide some directions in exchange for the return of some of the winnings. They pointed the adventurers toward a ballroom to the psouth that could be accessed by "rotating the green sconce".
The party duly explored psouth. Pinion fell victim to a hidden pit trap but survived. After some more exploration, they found a hallway lined with sconces and located a green one, which did indeed rotate to open a hidden door. Inside, they found a partially caved-in ballroom from which they collected 51 ornate candlesticks.
From their map, the adventurers were able to surmise that the rest of the ballroom could be accessed from a door they had passed. There, they met Diomedes the Minotaur, who was trapped under some rubble. The adventurers freed him, earning his gratitude and some useful rumors about deeper levels of the dungeon. As further thanks, he helped them kill an Orcish sentry before parting ways.
Satisfied with their progress, the party exited the dungeon and returned to Bar Udartophir without incident, where they sold the Android corpse to the Electron Sovereign.
Aftermath
Treasure Found: Laser pistol with 13 charges, blueprint for an osmium mining facility, K-series Android corpse, 345sp, 115gp, 51 ornate candlesticks (each 10gp).
Foes Encountered: K-series Android (slain), Orc (slain)
Rumors:
- The Ogre "Bunny Basher" lives on level 13.
- The colored keys from Hannibal Brompp's room open doors on level 5.
- The Minotaur king lives in a hall on level 10.
Deaths: None
XP Awarded: Base award of 1786 XP modified by level.
Notes
- I like running a very vertical dungeon; it's fun being able to casually say "it's on level 13".
- The encounter table is just the default U&WA table with minor tweaks. It's not pre-meditated or highly tailored to the scenario, so there's much improvisation in working out what encounters should look like. I'm finding it helps to work out one stock "thing" each type of monster does or wants -- in this case, (riffing on another encounter I'd already written), I decided that the Android SOP is to demand that you help them infiltrate a human society in some weird way and then shoot you with a laser pistol if you say no or stall too long. Kinda crude, and I'm not sure how much mileage I'll get long-term, but I'm gradually building up a mental list of these default interactions.
- I like that the players deduced that other side of the ballroom could be accessed from the door they had passed -- a basic but satisfying instance of the mapping game.
- I gotta write rules for Xeroian Hold-'em now.