The Lost Caverns of Tsojcanth Adventure Log

After healing, resting, and memorizing spells, the party was able to get Bertrim restored to his natural form. Now the party was split on how to proceed. One side thought it would be best to find a way out. The other, emboldened by their first successful encounter in ages and visions of an air elemental bringing doom to the Caverns inhabitants, wanted to descend the stairs. Greed prevailed, and they decided to press on with another air elemental for muscle.
Down 900 steps, each a foot high, to the Greater Caverns.
At the bottom of the stairs, the party had multiple passages they could choose from. The opted to head due south, and when that passage Yed they opted for the southeast branch. They soon found themselves in a large cave with a basin-like pool of water. The party felt a sense of safety, which of course put them all on guard. Searching the cave revealed nothing more than some unusual mushrooms. The expected magic mushroom jokes ensued. The party debated sampling the water and mushrooms, and then decided to see what an augury spell would reveal. They were surprised to find out that everything seemed beneficial, so they started drinking water and munching mushrooms. They then decided to head back to the bottom of the stairs and take a northern passage. It opened into a reeking, low-domed chamber with numerous tunnels branching off from it. The camouflaged troglodytes took them by surprise and hurled a volley of darts. The next round the trogs rushed to attack. Maylin took out a large group of them with a cone of cold. After a round or two of melee, a very large, sword-wielding trog emerged from one of the northern tunnels, croaked something at the party, and then rushed towards the fray. This whipped the remaining trogs into frenzy, and they started emitting their nauseating odor, but it had no effect on the party thanks to the mushrooms they had eaten earlier. Following the trog champion out of the tunnel was a hoard of huge trogs. Maylin cast his magic missiles at the champion while Elros fired a lightning bolt at the approaching hoard. The champion still stood and the hoard kept coming. The next round, just as the hoard was reaching the party, another magic missile and air elemental attack dropped the big trog. The illusionary hoard vanished. The party quickly mopped up the few remaining foes. For their efforts, and all of the spells they used up, the party got a few trg eggs, one piece of jewelry, and a crystal flask with some liquid in it.
They headed north.

 

Great stuff! I am glad they are proceeding forward, it is brave. However, if they make it Drelnza, they don't stand a chance! I smell either a TPK or hasty retreat with 1 or 2 survivors... Lol... I can't wait to hear more.

 

Glad you're enjoying the follies.
Yes, the Drelnza encounter could end badly.

 

After a short trek north, the party came upon a cavern lined with the calcified corpses of scores of previous adventurers. Multiple tiers of the limed-over corpses, the fresher stacked on top of the older. As the party scanned this grisly scene, they failed to spot the bodak standing amidst its previous victims. Elros was the first to meet the monster’s gaze. A sense of dread, cold and weakening washed over him. I asked him to roll a saving throw, but did not tell him what was at stake; he rolled and passed, and pointed out the creature to the rest of the party. Without knowing what they were facing, or how deadly a foe it could be, the party attacked. Elros, Bertrim, and the air elemental rushed forward. Maylin and Fentin hung back. All of the party members hit the bodak, the bodak turned its deadly gaze to Bertrim. The cleric saved, but took minor damage from a claw attack. The next round Maylin decided to use his last magic missile, while the rest of the group continued to attack. The magic-user met the monster’s gaze, but he too made his save. After another round of attacks and the magic missiles, the bodak dropped. A search of the cave revealed a rich cache of monetary and magic treasure which included three potions, three scrolls, a ring, bracers, a candle, a tine owl statuette, a short sword, a suit of elf sized scale mail, and a spear. Out of offensive spells, the party opted to return to the safe cave to rest and recover.

 

They seem to be getting pretty lucky on the saves. It appears that has been the difference between life and death several times. More, I say! More!

 

I have one more encounter to write up, and their luck does run out.

 

Lol... I knew it...

 

A word on the writing.
In my opinion, Gary was a master of mood-setting descriptive text, one of the best. The Lost Caverns as a whole contains some of the best descriptive text; the bodak encounter specifically is one of my favorites. The text is so vivid; the weird creepiness comes through and makes the encounter so memorable.

 

I agree. When I do homebrew stuff I always write up descriptive text. I don't claim to be a master as Gary was, but I think it is very important to the playability of the game in general. I keep trying to jump on the Old School publishing bandwagon, but I have gotten about 3/4 of the way through 4 different adventures and I keep petering out... Descriptive text is one of my roadblocks. It's not always easy to translate your idea of the setting or how the encounter should begin into a paragraph or two of description.

 

After resting, recovering, and summoning the air elemental the party continued exploring north. Past the bodak’s cave, the party entered a room that had been worked into a 30’ square chamber with passages in the center of each wall. The chamber was empty, so the party proceeded north until they came to an intersection that offered three directions to choose from, NW, NE, or SE. The party headed NW. The passage lead to a huge gallery cavern, 110 ‘ long, 30’ wide, 30’ – 60’ high. Metal could be seen glinting on the floor. The party entered cautiously, on guard for attacks from above. They noted shapes moving on the ledges above, “gargoyles”. They quickly withdrew to the last intersection and Maylin shot a fireball into the cavern. The party then rushed back in to attack. All of the margoyles were still alive and dropped on the party. For some reason, Maylin who usually hangs back, entered the cavern to attack. As the combat raged, Maylin fired a barrage of magic missiles at one margoyle before the margoyle returned the favor and hit with all four attacks. The next round, twp matgoyles pounced on the magic-user, knockinging him unconscious, and two HPs away from death. Once he went down, control over the air elemental was lost. The party did get lucky here since the elemental opted to return home instead of turning on them. The party had managed to kill one margoyle up to this point. Elros started reading a heal spell from a scroll while Bertrim and Fentin attacked the margoyles. Elros managed to bring Maylin back, but his spells had all been wiped from his memory. He did have a stock of magic missile scrolls though, and the party did manage to kill the matgoyles, but Fentin died in the combat. After Elros spider climbed around the cavern and located a few hidden items, the party limped back to their cave. A raise dead scroll brought Fentin back, and that’s where we ended the session.

 

Damn those Raise Dead scrolls... Oh well, it sounds as if they can rest and return to fight again!

 

That was their last raise dead. They may have one more heal.

 

Well, it looks like this journal is over. They finally pushed their luck too far. I think the air elemental made them overconfident. They left Fentin in the safe cave and went exploring. They finally found one of the center doors and got teleported and lost. They wandered around a bit and stumbled into the lair of two shambling mounds. Elros was killed outright, and Bertrim was knocked unconscious. At that point it was just Maylin and an air elemental. Maylin made a desperate plea for divine intervention, but to no avail. He then blundered his way through several encounters until he came upon a dracolisk’s lair. He unloaded on it with no regard to any treasure that might get damaged, and killed it before taking any damage himself. In the lair he found a passage that eventually led outside the mountain. After polymorphing himself into an eagle, he found the camp site. Rather than reentering the Caverns, he opted to head back to civilization. A week or so later he stumbled out of the mountains, with no intention of returning.

 

Lol... That's funny, and sad... What's next for the wayward wizard and the rest of the players?

 

I am a cruel DM. One thing I've always wanted to do is bring back a henchman that the players thought was dead and use the henchmen as someone wanting revenge. The henchman would also be slandering the name of the PC's throughout the region as a bunch of cowards and an untrustworthy lot....maybe even make them look like criminals.

There is so much you can do with a so-called "dead" NPC that will just freak players out. It also really makes them remember the game and makes them feel as if there is some sort of continuity.

 

quote="Melf"]

:twisted: I like that idea a lot. The NPC will undoubtedly have adventured his way back and obtained enough power- magic & XPs to be a challenge to the remaining party members. He could ally with some previous nemesis of the group and cause problems. That will make for some good adventures![/quote]

You, sir, have read my mind. I'm also thinking along the lines of some nice magical item or some other obvious item that the party overlooked will make its way into the henchman's hands. Most definitely would this NPC have found ways to find more powerful items but, also, if the party had to flee from the Big Bad Evil Guy then the so-called "evil" person might be the one that has healed up and trained this henchman. What better motivation?

(Plus I _really_ like to slander the name of the party. The so-called heroes come into town and everyone gives them go to the Abyss looks. It's great. :twisted: )

 

Fantastic idea! I might just steal, er... borrow that idea for my group!