FRC Session 11…Dinner?

Well, we’ve had a rather long break from gaming for a whole host of reasons. I think our last session was six weeks prior to our last session but we picked up right where we left off…with the party exploring the depths below Cagair Keep. An exploration that last found Rory separated from the rest of the party, spotting a bit of movement in the cavern ahead of her.

We have a new player joining us, Craig. He’s a newbie when it comes to D&D (a blank slate for me to mold, mwah ha ha!!!) and is playing a half-orc druid by the name of Dench. Like Skarr (Todd’s character), Dench happens to be one of Thokk’s children as well.

Muse had to miss this session and so RJ and then later Rachel played Dru. My GM comments are in [brackets and italics]. Actually, since I had to write this recap, they’re probably not nearly has separated from the events as they should be. 😉

While the rest of the party waited for Rory to return from her scouting, they found that they had problems of their own. A giant spider approached from the hallway that they had originally traveled. It must have dropped down the shaft behind them at some point. As they drew their weapons and approached it with menace, the thing backed away down the hallway. Quickly closing the door to deny it access, the party made additional preparations and then re-opened to attack. The spider had backed away to the larger chamber with the shaft that the party had dropped down.

As the party approached, the spider dropped down from the ceiling. Dru let loose with an arrow just as the spider landed on the floor AND transformed into a half-orc, one of Lokka’s warband. It was Dench! [Dench has Circle of the Moon so he can shapechange into a higher CR creature than a 3rd level druid could otherwise.] Dench had come down to inform Skarr and Lord Adran that Onog had returned and was approaching with a band of dworcs. It also turns out the Dench, like Lokka and Skarr, is one of Thokk’s children and Dru just shot him with an arrow!

While the rest of the party was occupied with all of this, Rory had problems of her own. She began to sneak back towards the chasm that separated her from her allies. Before she could make it all the way across, a pack of pale humanoids attacked here, crawling along the walls and ceiling of the caverns. Surrounded, she stood little chance and was quickly incapacitated. As the rest of the party looks on, helpless, from the other side of the chasm, she is dragged off by the creatures. One remains behind momentarily and bangs its chest in an apparent sign of victory!

With Dench’s aid and powers [Spider Dench, Spider Dench, does whatever a Spider Dench does], helps most of the party across with a rope. Skarr was last and tried to leap as far across the cavern as possible and then swing the rest of the way on the rope. He succeeded admirably but as he hit the opposite side of the chasm a bit of a way from the top edge, he dislodged some dirt and rock (seemingly held in place with some webbing) to reveal a tunnel about two to three feet across.

The party pressed on in their mad scramble to save Rory [a mad scramble that was surprisingly non-urgent on the part of the players]. It wasn’t long before they were in a fight with the creatures. Humanoid and about the size of a typical human, they were crudely clad and carried bone clubs. Their skin was very pale and they had large, bulging eyes that were a cloudy white in color. The creatures not only could climb along the cavern’s walls and ceiling, they could also leap considerable distances. When the party conjured forth a bright light , the creatures cringed but continued the fight…though less effectively.

Although the party was largely successful in their battle, it was not without losing one of their own. Strik was struck down by the creatures and then, like Rory, dragged away. Once the last of the creatures standing fled, the party now down a half-orc, searched for their companions. The trail of Strik’s blood was easy to follow. A short distance down some of the cavern’s twisting tunnels, they found both Strik and Rory in a chamber blocked by a crude gate made of bone and sinew. Rory was hung upside-down from the ceiling by a thick strand of sinew[…perhaps marinating for a nice dinner later.]

In short order, the party released Dru and found that she was unconscious and still breathing (and revived her) but Strik had not been so fortunate. Lord Adran’s most valued and trusted advisor was dead [and who are we kidding, Strik was the one really calling the shots. Thomas made it, I believe, to a full count on the death saves: two successes and two failures. His fifth one was a failure. Sadly, a rather non-dramatic way to go.] Not prepared to press on with their explorations, the party started the trek (and climb) back to the surface .

Reaching the chasm chamber, they took a moment to search through Strik’s belongings. [One might assume it was to see if he had anything on him to help them get across the chasm and then back up the shaft.] The rifling through his belongings, er, respectful search turned up the half-orc priest’s various vestments and trappings related to Shar! Strik was a priest of the rather despised and evil goddess. Despite having traveled and adventured with him for weeks, this was news to everyone in the party. Skarr reacted almost immediately by simply kicking the priest’s body down into the chasm. As the body bounced down the chasm’s slope, a rather large worm-like creature shot out of the very same tunnel that Skarr and uncovered a short time prior. As it scrambled down after the corpse, a second of the creatures squirmed out of the tunnel and joined the cadaver chase.

[And that, of course, is pretty much where we ended for the night. Since it had been so long since we had last played and we had a new player joining us, we spent a pretty good amount of time recapping the events of the campaign to date. So this was a fairly short session in terms of actual play.