Beyond the GLoG - Session 4
Eugène Ciceri. Design for a Stage Set. 1830-90.
Here we continue our makeshift GLoG micro-campaign, following the exploits of characters generated using Beyond the Wall. You can find the details of our previous sessions here.
The First Floor
We rejoined the party in the strange mausoleum, preparing to delve into the tomb complex below. The following characters joined the delve:
- Nagina Setimir - gifted dilettante, fifth in line to the Setimir seat
- Rold von Dietmar - would-be knight, newly elevated by the late Mergen Setimir
Short-handed, the duo decided to quickly correct their maps of the first level, then scout the floor below.
They descended down into the scorched ossuary, finding that someone had closed the door leading west into the banquet hall. Rather than barging in, Nagina volunteered to sneak ahead, taking the long way round through the secret passage to the south. She left Rold with a torch by the entrance.
She made it as far as the fountain room before stepping in something in the dark - a paper thin ooze that reared up and lunged at her. The ooze proved weak to flames, as Rold caught up and the duo thrust their torches into thing. It skulked away down the steps for fear of the heat.
The party made their way quickly up to the banquet hall, finding that someone had tidied the mess they had left previously (chopped up tables and scattered silverware). The armored skeleton they had left here was missing. Nagina rigged a simple trap by coating the door latch in holy water.
The Seated Figures
The party made their way back to the fountain room, dipping their weapons before heading down into the gloom below. After a short descent, they emerged into a rectangular room filled with robed figures sitting cross-legged. They didn't respond to the light of the party's torches. Nagina shoved the nearest one, revealing it to be nothing more than desiccated bones. In the collapsed remains, she found a silver amulet, rectangular with two braided lines embossed on the front.
The plaster on the west side of the room bulged as if barely containing a pool of water. Rold moved to investigate, but as he did one of the robed figures lurched up right and rushed him - a ghoul! Nagina rushed in and managed to connect despite the creature's unnatural speed. The holy water on her family's blade detonated and knocked the creature prone. It swiped out at her foot in retaliation and as its clawed fingers raked her ankle, Nagina suddenly went stiff, instantly paralyzed! Rold ran to her aid, stabbing with his lance and finishing the creature off.
Uncertain how long the paralysis would last, Rold carried Nagina back up the stairs to the fountain room. 30 minutes passed before the curse ran its course.
The Statues
When Nagina recovered, the duo surged downwards. They smashed the remaining skeletons and Rold snagged another silver necklace from the ghoul's corpse. Exited through a door to the east, they quickly coming to a crossroads. From past experience, the party recognized the central paving stone of the crossing as an obvious pressure plate.
Rold stepped carefully over the plate to the north, finding a small alcove with a table, a pair of chairs, and a dice cup. He rolled the die and got a six!
Peeking south, the duo found a door. Nagina popped it open, revealing a narrow corridor which rapidly hooked to the west, where it began to slope downwards.
Preferring to explore the current area more thoroughly, they headed east, following the corridor for 30 paces before it turned north and opened into a square room decorated with four statues. A narrow door left the room due east. Each seemed to wear a robe like the skeletons in the entry chamber. Each had their hands raised, as if in celebration.
Nagina checked the statues hands from afar. Three were smooth stone, but one had a pair of withered claws! She shared her observation with Rold who charged without hesitation.
The ghoul was quicker. It jumped down from its plinth and struck with its claws, but Rold batted them aside with his lance before plunging it into the creature's chest. The holy oil detonated and suddenly it was reduced to little more than smoking boots.
As the dust settled, The party inspected the empty plinth, finding a small slot bored into it where a statues foot might go. Nagina and Rold disrobed the statues and found them surprisingly buff. They mused whether this had always been Artur Viera Setimir's plan or if this was a later innovation by the dead.
Rold (I believe) suggested donning the robes and silver amulets as a disguise.
The Stairs
The duo exited through the east door, finding themselves at the top of a steep flight of stairs. These steps were laborious to climb and their legs burned as they worked their way down them.
About halfway, the party was ambushed - the thin ooze from before dropped from the ceiling in a surprise attack! Learning from their previous encounter, they quickly dispatched it with their torches.
At the bottom of the stairs, the tunnel opened into an ancient barracks. Wooden cots lined the walls and empty chests lay scattered or smashed. Someone had already ransacked this space. Another door headed east.
After a brief inspection, the duo shrugged and explored further. They quickly came to a T-junction headed north and east. The eastern passage was filled with rubble nearly floor to ceiling. Rold carefully scaled the debris and found a narrow, unstable-looking crawlspace that extended some 10ish feet to an open passage on the far side.
To the north, the tunnel extended a short distance before coming to a small circular room, empty except for a single nude statue with arms raised propped against the wall. The duo quickly recognized it as the missing figure, noted its immense weight and the fact that it had a metal rod emerging from its right foot.
The Barracks
Again, an open archway headed east. The party heard a whistle in the dark from beyond. Holding a torch inside, the party found a large square chamber filled with training dummies, weapon racks, and shields mounted on the walls - a training room?
Catty-cornered to the south, the duo could see an opening into another square chamber. They heard the sound of clattering footsteps as they approached the entrance. Inside, what appeared to be a smithy was a small formation of ten animated skeletons in tattered leather armor, each with sword and shield. They were led by a skeletal sergeant who turned and tooted loudly on its whistle in surprise.
Mutually startled, the party decided to flee back to the barracks. They hustled back to the vacant room and Rold quickly muscled some of the cots into place as a makeshift barricade. Nagina conjured an illusion of the slime they had fought before in the hall.
The skeletons took a surprisingly long time to catch up, but when they arrived they were prepared. Shields raised to form a wall, they advanced in unison, seeming to ignore the illusory ooze. Nagina tried to fire an arrow at the sergeant, dimly visible in the back, but her bowstring snapped.
This was too much for the party who promptly fled back to the surface, promising to return in greater numbers. The return trip was (blessedly) uneventful. Back in the ossuary, Nagina noted boot prints in the soot - someone wearing heavy mailed boots had passed this way.
GM Notes
I am always astonished by how much a small party can get done in a single session. I'm not curving the encounter sizes to match (as evidenced by the 11 skeleton squad at the end), but less time bouncing ideas off one another means more rooms explored in short order.
While we had our fair share of combats, the party also happened to hit a pocket of relatively simple rooms - unadorned chambers that serve practical(ish) purposes. That sped things along as well.
The second ghoul ambush produced some good groans and laughs. Those ghouls were no joke though for a pair of level 1 characters. Holy water plus some decent rolls made short work of them, but I could easily see the world where both characters got paralyzed and we ended up with a quick TPK.
I think a couple of our systems would need tweaks for a longer campaign. I'm handing out 50 XP per HD for monsters defeated - an amount that helps speed the jump to level 2 but becomes more-or-less trivial from that point on. That said, that XP has been a significant portion of their advancement so far and I might tune that down in the future. I also currently have PCs recovering to full HP with a good night's sleep. That might be a touch generous. Given the small HP pools in our system, I could see bumping that down to d6/HD or something like that.