The Lost City adventures continued on Saturday night. When we last left our heroes, they had just entered the jester’s tomb on tier four of the pyramid. Jennifer, after looking at what her characters have mapped thus far (I’m mapping for her behind the screen when she enters a new area), decided there was plenty of areas in tier three yet to explore, and that the lower tier might be a bit more dangerous right now anyway. Smart thinking, but I had my tier four notes out, dang it! Anyway, after I reshuffled some papers, the party headed back up the ramp and back into the abandoned ceremonial chamber.

After making their way to the revolving passageway, Jen spent a bit of time working out just what the hell each button did. Turns out her first guess with the buttons was just that, a lucky guess, and that she hadn’t yet figured out how exactly the thing is supposed to work. I can’t say I blame her, it isa complicated little doohickey. Anyway, John the cleric eventually presses a button, and the passageway spins around accordingly. However, as the party was standing there for awhile trying to work things out, the evil Labyrinth Lord (or DM if you like), made a wandering monster check and turned up a result. Thus, the chamber started spinning again, and a group of five warpaint covered hobgoblins entered the passage, one of them dragging a female captive along with them.

John tried to negotiate some kind of truce like he did with the goblins previously, but the warlike hobgoblins were having little of it. They instructed John and company to put down their arms and surrender, which Assim advised John against. Meanwhile, Agnar is itching for a fight, “Sod this, let’s save the lass!” he bellows. I think it’s really quite swell that Jennifer is able to play both John and Agnar as the separate personalities they should be.

Anyway, all this eventually did lead to a fight. However, because of the confines of the passage, only two individuals could melee at a time, while the rest resorted to pelting each other with missile weapons. Honestly, this wasn’t much of a fight. The party had the dice rolls on their side in this particular instance. John got scratched by an arrow from a hobgoblin’s shortbow for one point of damage, I think that’s all the damage the party took here. Assim ran one hobgoblin through in the first round, while Agnar pulled out his shortbow and struck a hobgoblin in the shoulder with an arrow. Next round, Assim ran a second hobgoblin through just as the creature was dropping his bow and unsheathing his scimitar to melee with the fighter. Meanwhile, Agnar nocked another arrow and caught the same hobgoblin right in the throat, killing it. John had pulled out his sling and bashed another hobgoblin in the side of the head with a high velocity rock, sending the fourth hobgoblin in a row dropping to the floor dead. The final hobgoblin damn near wet himself and fled the room in a panic. The party decided not to give chase.

Afterwards, the woman the hobgoblins had taken captive dusted herself off and profusely thanked the party for saving her. She was a rather ugly and filthy lady, donned in a suit of flea-ridden padded armor. She introduced herself as M’Tilda, another poor soul who was separated from the merchant caravan and lost in the mighty sandstorm. She had found her way her to the ruins of Cynidicea and later inside the pyramid, where she ran across the Warrior Maidens of Madarua. She pleaded to join the faction because she wanted to wear one of the masks of Madarua to cover the unfortunate gargoyle face that she was born with. However, the Warrior Maidens rejected M’Tilda and left the woman to her own devices. She knew not what the hobgoblins were going to do with her, but it probably wasn’t going to be pleasant.

M’Tilda is one of the many characters I rolled up for my NPC roster. I did not intend to force her into the party or anything like that, I legitimately wedged her into one of the wandering monster encounters and let fate decide if things would pan out that way. There was also the question of whether or not Jennifer would want her in the group, but that was quickly answered as John asked if M’Tilda would be willing to help them out because, after all, there is strength in numbers. M’Tilda, very impressed by the party’s performance in the hobgoblin fight, readily agreed.

Here’s a brief glance at her stats:

M’Tilda (1st level Thief, chaotic alignment)
STR: 7, DEX: 13, CON: 7, INT: 8, WIS: 9, CHA: 6
HP: 3
AC: 7 (padded leather, DEX bonus)
Weapon: club and 4 throwing daggers

I believe I put the opportunity to pick up another NPC party member into this particular game night because I felt that Jennifer, after reading some comments about how deadly this adventure can be, was feeling a bit paranoid about exploring the pyramid with only three people in her group. Well, now the group has a thief, who has a number of useful abilities some of the others won’t have, like picking locks, detecting traps, moving silently, or hearing noises from afar.

The first thing M’Tilda suggests the group do is strip the hobgoblins for anything useful. The party comes up with four gems, each worth about 250 gold each. Jennifer had to stop at that point and devise a new system for documenting the gems on her character sheet — she had already picked up so many! If John ever made it back to civilization, he would be a rich man… or rather, his church would be rich. The party also took all of the hobgoblins’ scimitars, bows, and arrows with them to add to the Brotherhood’s supplies. Hey, more clever thinking!

Once the party had got their bearings and readjusted the passageway, they went southeast, into the Brotherhood’s ceremonial chambers and back up to tier two through the hidden hatch. Kanadius had gone down below to the hidden stronghold to bring up a replacement for Habib and perhaps another fresh body or two, since things were getting a little more dangerous up here lately. However, the sub-lieutenant Cyrus had been left in charge, and graciously thanked John and company for the weapons. Cyrus informed the party that the hobgoblins roaming about the pyramid usually worked for the Priests of Zargon, and that they routinely captured Cynidiceans (Brotherhood, Magi, Warrior Maidens, and unaffiliated alike) and goblins for both sacrifice to Zargon and as slaves, so it was fortunate for M’Tilda that the party encountered the hobgoblins when they did.

John asked Cyrus if the Brotherhood would accept M’Tilda as a member, but Cyrus informed him that the Brotherhood of Gorm does not accept women. However, if John felt M’Tilda would be useful to them, the woman could be made a ‘friend of Gorm’, much like Agnar was made an associate of Gorm. John accepts this, and M’Tilda is given a necklace like Agnar’s. During this time, John gives M’Tilda one of the scimitars, which seems a more potent weapon than the club she was carrying. One of the sets of studded leather armor that the party had put in storage was also donated to the thief, which improved her AC to 5.

After a little siesta, the party is ready to do some more exploring, and heads back down to the revolving passage. M’Tilda tells John which buttons lead to the Warrior Maidens if the group ever wants to go that way, or rather, if they just want to avoid a confrontation with them. Taking her advice, John presses a different button, which sends the group west bound. The hallway they enter has been painted a midnight blue, with little sploches of white paint representing the stars. It was probably pretty strange to see for both John and Agnar, considering they had been underground now for almost two weeks. Approaching the door, they saw a star carved into it. As the party pushes the door open, a bell chimed, informing anyone beyond of their arrival…

The party stumbled upon about thirteen men, each in garish multicolored robes, all wearing masks of the winged child statue above, Usamigaras. The group had apparently interrupted some kind of religious service. The apparent leader of the Magi, a fellow wearing a silver crown, pointed at John and demanded to know what the Brotherhood was doing here. John, not realizing that these were the Magi of Usamigaras yet, apologized for the interruption, then informed everyone there that he was looking for recruits for the Brotherhood of Gorm. The entire room burst out into a fit of laughter then, as the leader of the Magi told John in a mocking tone that he had come to the wrong place. Assim whispered in John’s ear just who these fellows were, and that the two factions were not exactly on the best of terms. John apologized again, this time for not hailing from these parts, and wisely departed from the Magi’s chapel before anything got ugly. The party could hear more laughter behind them as they closed the door and left.

Making their way back to the revolving passageway, the group ended up going northwest, into a hall that moved diagonally in the same direction. However, Jennifer has gotten pretty good at knowing when to search for any potential secret doors. The party stopped before exploring the rest of the hall and searched the area for anything unusual. M’Tilda came up with a brick that looked like it could be pressed in. Pressing it, the party discovered a secret room, empty save a large wicker basket resting in the middle.

John peered into the basket, only to have the living daylights scared out of him as two pit vipers leapt out. Their domain disturbed, the snakes were ready for attack. Assim and Agnar quickly sprung to John’s aid, whilst M’Tilda tried quietly circling around to get the drop on one of the snakes. I don’t think the thief realized it’s damn near impossible to backstab a snake.

Wow, this fight was scary. The first to get wounded was Assim, who I believe needed to roll a 12 or higher on his saving throw versus poison or be infected with a lethal poison. He rolled a 14. Despite surviving the poison, Assim was still reduced to 1 hit point from his wound. Meanwhile, Agnar was frantically hacking away at one of the snakes with his battle axe, taking it down almost a single hit point at a time. The next to get wounded was M’Tilda, who needed to roll a 14 or higher to survive… she rolled a 19, and luckily, only took 1 point of damage from her wound. Assim had rallied back and taken out one of the pit vipers with a solid swipe of his long sword.

During all this, John was whiffing badly with his quarterstaff. He needed to roll a 13 or better to hit, and Jen kept rolling 12’s. It was kinda funny. She lamented that John’s swings were as bad as an Eric Byrnes hitless slump. I realize that putting in a baseball reference is going to alienate about 95% of my readership here, but screw you, you pale, puny nerds! Watch a ball game every now and then, ya bums!

Anyway, Agnar, who had bravely fought one of the snakes, was the next to get struck. He only took 1 point of damage, but he needed to make a poison save himself… or die. Being a dwarf, he had a pretty good save versus poison. He need to roll an 8 or better. Jennifer grabbed the d20, shook it up, and rolled…

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She rolled an 8.

Whoo…

M’Tilda actually landed the blow that finished off the second pit viper, and the relieved party did their usual routine when badly wounded — spike the door shut and collapse in a heap. While resting, John took some time to investigate the wicker basket. What he found was a small fortune. Five gems, ranging in value from a mere 10 gold to an outstanding 500 gold, and a pile of silver coins, about 3,000 in total. He donated all the coins to M’Tilda for finishing off the snake and then the party divided the gems up, John giving himself the least valuable share. What a kind-hearted, selfless fellow this John Masterson is!

After some rest (and a cure light woundson Assim beforehand), the party was ready to move on. They ventured through a north door to find a closet-like space in front of them. Searching for hidden panels again, Agnar found another brick, which opened up a space to enter the room with the shelves and crates covered in yellow mold that had been explored by the party previously. John, acting as quarterback again, huddled his team together and discussed how to possibly destroy yellow mold so they could look inside the crates behind it. Fire was again suggested, so Agnar lit up a torch and ventured into the room while the rest of the party kept a safe distance away.

The dwarf approached some of the mold and attempted to light it with his torch. The stuff easily caught on fire and started burning away. Unfortunately for Agnar, the strange substance shot out a burst of mold spores, a kind of self defense reaction. Agnar was the only one caught in the radius of this attack, and had to make a saving throw versus death ray. Again, he needed a roll of 8 or better.

Jennifer reached for the d20. Shook it up. Grimaced. And rolled…

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She rolled a 2.

*Cough* *Cough* *Cough* — Agnar began violently choking on the yellow mold spores and dropped to the ground dead before he could reach any of his companions for aid. As he died, the rest of the mold burned away. In essence, they killed each other.

Agnar Locksmiter (1st level dwarf) – R.I.P.

Jennifer was pretty crestfallen that one of her guys got killed. Mostly, she seems to be worried that she’s going to be mocked on here for doing something stupid, which is not going to happen. First of all, I’m sure as novices to the game, we’ve all done legitimately stupid things before, either as a player or as a DM. I know I’ve died much, much less heroic deaths than Agnar’s in the past. Second, is the fact that it wasn’t a stupid move to try and burn the mold — that’s how you kill the buggers. She just got unlucky with the dice rolls (yellow mold shoots spores 50% of the time after being touched, which I rolled, and then the failed saving throw that she rolled after that). Yeah, you could say maybe her characters were greedy by trying to kill the mold and investigate the crates behind it, but that’s kind of the point of these games. Get rich or die trying.

And if you die, well, grab a blank character sheet and try again!

Anyway, the party dragged Agnar’s body back into the other room, and the very upset John had Assim investigate the crate where the yellow mold was. Assim came back with a couple of vials — potions that later turned out to be a potion of healing and a potion of undead control. Afterwards, the group abandoned any further exploration for the time being and carried Agnar back to the Brotherhood’s base in tier two. The Brotherhood were saddened to lose another member, and began preparing a casket for the dwarf immediately. Jennifer began transferring any useful items from Agnar’s sheet over to John’s, while the rest of Agnar’s gear would be placed into the Brotherhood’s supply lockers. On that downbeat note, we decided to call it a night.

On a slightly brighter note, the surviving members of the party are very, very close to leveling up now. John only needs about 200 more XP, Assim needs about 500, and M’Tilda needs about 600, despite only being with the group for one session (thieves don’t need much to reach level 2, it must be said). We have a fresh character sheet for Jen to use for her new companion, and she’s thinking about going with a fighter (she has one line in her block of 10 with a Strength score of 17, so that might be a tempting one to use).

Next time we play, the new character will wander in from the desert and be introduced, and the party will most likely continue explorations of the pyramid. Stay tuned.