The further adventures of John and Agnar continued last night in the Labyrinth Lord Lost City campaign. In the few hours we played, the characters learned some new information about the pyramid, explored some new areas, got into some brutal fights, and found a bit of treasure in the end to make them feel better about things.

Before I continue, Jennifer wanted to make sure I mentioned that her character, John Masterson, is a little bit on the short side. I don’t know why telling everyone about his height is important, but there you go. He’s a wee man. Though probably not as short as Agnar.

Anyway, we started out with a bit of an info dump. At the end of our last game, I let Jen read a little bit of the background info, which Kanadius, leader of the Brotherhood of Gorm, would have related to John and Agnar over the next few days while they rested and healed wounds. For those who haven’t read the module, a very brief recap: The ruined city outside was known as Cynidicea, the capital city of a fertile empire many centuries ago. The Cynidicean’s last and greatest ruler was King Alexander, whom the pyramid was erected for upon his death. The pyramid ultimately became the most important building in the city.

Unfortunately, the pyramid was built close to the lair of an evil entity known as Zargon, which was discovered by Cynidicean workers digging under the area. The ruthless tentacled creature killed most of the workers, then set about hunting for victims throughout the streets of the city every night. Fearful of Zargon’s repeated attacks, the city officials began sending criminals from the jails into the pyramid as a daily sacrifice for the monster to feed on. As time passed, a strange cult arose that worshipped Zargon as a god. They believed the sacrificies were religious in nature, and outright banned the worship of the ancient Cynidicean gods — Gorm, Usamigaras, and Madarua (the statues John and Agnar first saw when entering the pyramid).

The worshippers of Zargon drowned themselves in potent booze and mind altering drugs. The workers no longer repaired the irrigation ditches, the army lost it’s discipline, and rich land turned into a desert wasteland. Many outside the city rebelled, while others tried to move as far away from the capital as they could.

As if things could not get any worse, an army of barbarians stormed over the city walls and sacked the place. The only people who survived the destruction were those who had fled to the catacombs underneath the city. It is there that the Cynidiceans, led by the Priests of Zargon, started to rebuild their city — underground. They found the original water supply for the ruined city above, an underground lake, and started to build the original dwellings around that, using stones from the pyramid above them. Edible fungi and mushrooms served as the crops to these hardy people, who developed pale white skin and hair over the passing generations.

Thus, over time, the drifting sands covered the original city, and the new Cynidicea became lost in the vastness of the Jarra Desert.

However, there are still those that wish to restore the worship of the old gods and rid the Cynidiceans of Zargon’s evil influence. The Brotherhood of Gorm, the Magi of Usamigaras, and the Warrior Maidens of Madarua are all secretly operating within the pyramid and the lost city below. Unfortunately, while all three have good intentions, they have trouble getting along. As it stands at the moment, there is a very uneasy truce between the three factions, but Kanadius warned both John and Agnar to be wary, for the groups have come to blows before, and it could happen again at any time.

I gave Jennifer the option to have John and Agnar leave the Brotherhood to their own devices if she wished to find a way back to civilization, but she decided to have her guys stay for a time to repay the Brotherhood for feeding them and giving them a safe place to rest. Kanadius also believes John to be a special one, because he has access to clerical magic, something the Brotherhood has been missing for some time. I should also state that, while John has joined the Brotherhood and gone through an initiation ceremony (and now wears the mask of Gorm), he has not lost any of his clerical abilities. Both Gorm and John’s original deity are lawful in alignment, so either John’s deity has allowed his follower to aid a fellow god for a time, or Gorm himself is now providing John with the power.

The adventure started with the Brotherhood concerned about two things: the need for more food and drink, and the need for more recruits. Food is easy enough for the Brotherhood members in the lost city to find, but the members in the upper tiers were in dire need of a fresh stockpile. A scout had reported seeing a number of crates with preserved food and wine casks there for the taking on the third tier, so this was one option for John and Agnar to tackle. As for new recruits, the Brotherhood of Gorm at this point only consists of twenty-five members, divided between their forces on the upper tiers of the pyramid and their hidden stronghold in the lost city below. The normal Cynidiceans in the thrall of Zargon would make good recruits if they could be weened off their supply of mind-expanding drugs and wine. It was reported by Kanadius to John that these Cynidiceans are constantly roaming the various tiers of the pyramid, and if any could be brought back to the Brotherhood’s quarters, they could be isolated until the drugs wore off, at which point they could attempt to convert them to the worship of Gorm. Ultimately, John and Agnar would help with both tasks for the Brotherhood.

Food was the more immediate concern, so John and Agnar were paired up with the scout who knew the route to the food, Habib, and another Brotherhood member for extra protection, Assim. Here are the stats I rolled up for both of these NPC’s (again, 3d6 in order):

Habib (1st level Fighter)
STR: 12, DEX: 10, CON: 7, INT: 13, WIS: 13, CHA: 9
HP: 4
AC: 5 (iron chain mail)
Weapon: long sword

Assim (1st level Fighter)
STR: 15, DEX: 11, CON: 15, INT: 10, WIS: 12, CHA: 14
HP: 6
AC: 5 (iron chain mail)
Weapon: long sword

I totally kicked ass rolling for Assim, he’s got some blessed ability scores for a 3d6 in order character. Meanwhile, while Habib is a smart fighter, he’s a bit sickly.

I should also note that, because John and Agnar have spent a number of days with the Brotherhood now, they are slowly starting to understand the Cynidicean tongue a little more. It is, after all, just an ancient variation of the common tongue.

Anyway, John, Agnar, and Assim started by following Habib, who led the party back down the secret hatch into the Brotherhood’s ceremonial chamber on tier 3 and out into the hall through the western door. As soon as the party left the room, a field of blue electrical energy shot up and covered the door, protecting it from unwanted guests and thieves. Habib told John the secret command word to turn the trap off and proceed without being harmed.

When the party got to the end of the hall, they were greeted by another door, and a series of buttons with very strange symbols in the ancient Cynidicean language carved into them. I traced the symbols from the module onto some white paper for Jennifer to look at, while Habib told John which button they would be pressing to go southwest. As he did, John and Agnar could hear a series of weights and counterweights moving around, as if the chamber beyond was spinning about! The party then passed through one of the pyramid’s strangest features, the revolving passageway (a love it or hate it feature of The Lost City module, for sure).

So the passageway took the party from the southeast hall to the southwest hall, where they first discovered a normal sized statue of Usamigaras. John noted that the wand in the winged child’s hand looked like it could be pulled one direction or the other, but Habib insisted that this wasn’t the right direction. Instead, the party took a hallway that branched south. About fifty feet down the hall, they came upon the door to the supply room with all the food in it. When the party opened the door however, they were in for a surprise…

Four beetles were attempting to break into the crates, desperately trying to get to the food. Upon seeing the party though, the beetles decided the adventurers would be a much more filling meal. John noted that these beetles looked different and were a bit bigger than the fire beetles encounter before.

The fight that soon broke out was a long and brutal one. Initially, the party started out well with Agnar wounding one with his battle axe, and Assim the fighter outright killing another with his long sword. However, Agnar was wounded by beetle bites, as was Habib. It is then that the party discovered just what type of beetles they were facing, as one stopped and squirted a burning, nasty smelling oil into Agnar’s face. The oil blistered his skin and blurred his vision, causing a -2 penalty to all attack rolls for the time being. Both John and Habib soon suffered the same fate, and when the oil beetle on Habib nailed him with the icky substance, it followed up with a huge bite that proved to be lethal. As the scout dropped to the ground dead, the remaining party members decided upon a fighting retreat, pulling out of the fight and slamming the door to the room shut behind them. John was wounded by one of the oil beetles as he fled from the room.

Outside the supply room, the party regrouped while John healed some wounds. Jennifer decided the party should try again at the three remaining beetles, and had John give a little rousing speech to keep Agnar and Assim’s spirits up. This was cute, but it was also clever. It’s part of a cleric’s MO to try and inspire his comrades, so I ruled that Agnar and Assim would get a +1 bonus to attack rolls for the next fight.

So the party had another go at the oil beetles. Ultimately the fight was more successful, but only just. Assim managed to kill another one of the insects, but Agnar, after wounding the same beetle again, was reduced to 0 hit points. I rolled on the injury table for the first time to find out the dwarf’s fate, and luckily (for him at least), he was only knocked unconscious for 2d6 rounds. This dwarf has nine lives I tells ya! With Agnar out for the rest of the fight, John and Assim were able to team up and slay the remaining two oil beetles, both after suffering some near fatal wounds themselves. The party had gone up against four 2HD creatures and survived with only one casualty. Huzzah!

The party instantly decided to spike the door and rest in this room for the night, so that they might regain a few hit points and so John could recover his spell (which has remained Cure Light Wounds thus far). The three adventurers took turns keeping watch, and on the final watch Agnar thought he heard the sounds of the revolving passageway spinning around, indicating that someone was using it, although they must have travelled in a different direction, because there was no ensuing encounter.

Eight hours later, the party was ready to head back to the Brotherhood’s upper tier headquarters. loaded down with provisions to see them through the next couple months. Habib’s body was placed in one of the crates until he could be recovered later, to prevent looters or carrion feeding creatures from harming him further. The group moved northeast, back towards the revolving passageway, where they were once again presented with a series of buttons and the strange symbols carved into them. Unfortunately, Assim did not know which button to press himself, it was only Habib who knew the way.

You’d think I planned it this way so that the scout was killed off early, but no. I just let the dice tell the story, and this is the one they chose.

However, Jennifer figured out the little puzzle by doing some simple counting. I was impressed, because reading others’ accounts of their Lost City sessions, I know some players get incredibly frustrated and flummoxed during this section of the module. The party pressed the correct button and returned down the southeast passage, through the electrical trap, and up through the secret hatch. The food was brought before Kanadius, and the party, still a little worse for wear, decided to get some more rest.

When they awoke, it was time to do some patrolling for any rogue Cynidiceans wandering around the complex, in the hopes of capturing them and freeing them from the drugs keeping them slaves to Zargon. John would also use this time as a chance to explore the other areas of the pyramid missed thus far. The party (still accompanied by Assim), went west in tier 2, down the hallway the party of goblin slaves were walking through previously. As they moved down the hall, John noticed a stone sticking out of the wall just an inch or two, which looked strangely out of place. Pressing on it, the wall slid sideways to reveal a secret room which contained something shiny on the floor…

…and some stirges flying about the place! The party prepared for another fight, this one equally as dangerous as the beetle fight. There were four stirges in total, although Assim was able to swat one out of the air and kill it in the first round. Agnar wounded another, while John faced some difficulties. The stirge flying towards him was able to latch on, doing some damage, and then started on it’s bloodsucking ways. John would spend the next few rounds trying to swat the thing off of him, while Agnar killed another stirge flying around the room. Assim was able to kill the stirge latched onto John, but not before another latched onto him! Agnar and John (after he healed himself) were able to combine their efforts and finish off the last one before it killed Assim.

It was another tough fight that almost killed both John and Assim (both went down to 1 hit point before being saved). However, the difficult encounter was not without reward. John discovered the shiny glint on the floor came from four rather sizeable gems. John randomly chose two of them and gave them to Assim as thanks for saving his life, while John and Agnar each took one of the other gems. The party closed the secret door and rested right there in the now-empty stirge nest. Even though the Brotherhood’s quarters were pretty near, I think Jen wanted to avoid any wandering monster encounters on the way, which probably would’ve wiped out the wounded party. While they rested, Agnar appraised the gems. The gem John claimed was worth 100 gold pieces, while the two given to Assim were worth 100 and 500 gold each. Agnar however, got extremely lucky — his gem was worth a whopping 1000 gold pieces!

After eight hours rest and some hit points recovered, the party pressed on with their exploration/patroling. They rounded a corner and came upon some of the aforementioned Cynidiceans, wandering around the place at random. There were six of them in all, wearing striped robes with masks on that looked much like camel faces. They were all walking in a bizarre fashion, as if they were trying to step over some imaginary objects. The ‘leader’ of the group grabbed John by the shoulders and told him to be careful to not step on any of the ’snakes’ on the floor. He tried to show John a safe path to avoid stepping on the apparently angry snakes, but it was clear these men were just delusional. Assim seemed to confirm this by telling John he thought their minds were too far gone. It was kind of a sad, surreal sort of random encounter, and Jennifer seemed to be at a loss for words. There were probably too many of them to round up and bring back to the Brotherhood, and even if they did, Assim might well have been right — the Cynidiceans were too consumed with their drug use to ever be useful again. The party let the strange men pass, who continued on down the hallway, still trying to avoid the invisible snakes.

The party ignored a spiral staircase going down to the third tier for now to investigate the final unexplored room of the second tier. They found an abandoned priest’s quarters, and the bloated corpse of another hobgoblin. Assim informed John and Agnar that the wounds on the hobgoblin’s body indicated that ‘the killer bees got him’. When asked about this further, Assim claimed that the next room beyond, the Brotherhood’s treasure trove, was protected by a hive of killer bees! The party left the quarters and the hobgoblin body untouched and decided to head downstairs.

Once downstairs, they found another secret door, this one leading into the other side of the supply room they had previously ransacked. They found the room to be empty, although the crates had been tipped over or ripped open angrily. Perhaps the original owners of the food had found out they had been robbed?

The party went back into the hall through the secret door and made their way to the revolving passage again. I don’t know if Jen knew which way she wanted to go or just randomly pressed a button, but John ended up pressing the button for ‘north’, which sent the passage spinning around until they came to a hallway heading north, then branching east and west. The party went west first, discovering a shelf lined room with a number of crates on them, covered in a very strange and vile looking yellow mold substance. Jennifer had no idea on how to get rid of these sort of things, although she did suggest both fire and holy water as possibilites… interesting. Anyway, much like the green slime room earlier, the party quickly moved away from the room, deciding to head east instead.

Down the eastern hall they found a door leading to an abandoned ceremonial chamber with a smashed altar, the word ‘ZARGON’ had been written on the wall in a crude attempt at graffiti. Behind the smashed altar, the party discovered a ramp going downwards. Investigating, they found themselves down in the fourth tier of the pyramid, inside a room with many court scenes painted on the walls of a dwarven court jester entertaining both King Alexander and his bride Queen Zenobia. A coffin rested in a niche on the far wall. The party had apparently found themselves in the jester’s tomb…

We decided to call it a night there. It was a very interesting game, with a fair amount of exploration happening, and a pair of very exciting battles. I think Jennifer had a bit more fun with it this time, since she had a better handle on some of the rules and such. Her characters almost died twice, with the lucky boy Agnar escaping on the injury table result with only an 11 round KO instead of a fatal wound. She wanted to know if she was bad at the game, or if it’s always this hard at first level. The answer? It’s always this hard at first level. You’re novice scum at first level. You’re not all that great at anything, really, and you don’t have many hit points. I think Jennifer is pretty good at this actually, because she’s aware enough to know when it’s time to retreat, and when it’s time to press on. I know I said it before, but many players would just blindly fight on after being on the receiving end of a battering.

Jennifer also really loved the new set of dice I bought. I got a couple more sets so I wouldn’t be reaching back and forth from behind the screen to fetch dice (my original dice collection remains in a basement in Ohio). The set I got for her were kind of a clear white, but sparkly looking. They seem to change color a bit as you hold them up to the light. Did I mention my girlfriend likes rolling dice?

For XP, I divided all the combat stuff equally amongst the three surviving party members (poor Habib…), because Assim is considered an NPC party member and not a henchman or retainer. However, for treasure XP, I did something that might be a little controversial. Since the party decided not to pool and share the treasure equally, I just gave them the XP for what gems they ended up with (I made some random rolls to see who got what), thus Agnar got the most experience for his 1000 gp value gem, Assim got the second most, and John got the least. I think it’s perfectly acceptable for the party to not split the wealth evenly if they so desire, and Jennifer even agreed that this worked out a bit better for the group anyway — John needs the least amount of XP to level up, while Agnar needs quite a bit to reach level two, so while the dwarf may have more XP at the moment, they’re now relatively equal in how close they are to reaching level two (about a 1000 XP away each).

Don’t know when we’ll play again. We have crap to do over the next couple weeks. Will keep the blog updated with any future reports however.