Characters:
- Barack Kihnos* - Cleric 2 - Male
- Gil-Fimbriel - Elf 1 - Male
- Red Dongya (The Last Barbarian Princess) - Fighter 1 - Female
- Howayanshite Goblin Slayer (aka "Wayne") - Dwarf 1 - Male
- Zarjaz the Zazzy - Magic-User 2 - Male
The story continues ...
The surviving members of the party (Barack, Gil-Fimbriel and Zarjaz) are back in Ethanfeld recuperating after their latest expedition to the Dragonbone Peaks. They divide up the magic treasure: Gil-Fimbriel takes the sword +1, +3 vs. spell users and Zarjaz takes the wand of paralyzation.
During this interlude replacements for Dong and Delast are recruited:
Red Dongya is Dong's cousin and heir apparent to their clan's chiefdom. The story, as she tells it, is that her father, the old chief, is in a coma having being poisoned by Dong in a failed attempt to seize the throne. She has come south seeking vengeance and is under blood oath to return with Dong's head and perhaps a huge sack of gold and mighty enchanted weapon to strengthen her own claims. She also has a penchant for taking the penis' of her kills, fortunately nobody enquired further. She inherits Dong's leather armour +1.
Howayanshite Goblin Slayer is a no nonsense, heavy drinking, goblin slaying Dwarf with a Geordie accent. The party had actually met him previously in Ethanfeld at the end of the session where Delast was killed. But when his player didn't turn up the next session we decided that he didn't accompany the party, the story goes that he was too drunk and they left him at the inn. He is given the potion of invisibility.
The party's journey back to the labyrinth is, as usual, uneventful and they make their way unmolested back to the Manticore's lair on the 4th level. Dong's remains are where they had been left; skewered against the wall by Manticore spines. Somewhat disappointed at not being able to kill the poisoner herself, Red Dongya severs his maggot infested head and puts it in a sack.
Proceeding south the party slay their way through a half dozen chambers that serve as the lair of another goblin tribe. This involves a couple of entertaining moments (at least for me) centred around bashing through barred doors:
In the first one, after Red Dongya has twice failed to bash a door down, Gil-Fimbriel decides to step up and show the "frail" what elves are made of. I have meanwhile decided that the goblins behind the door had decided to unbar it and surprise the next character that tried. So Gil-Fimbriel takes a run up and his player triumphantly rolls a natural 20 and flies through the now unresisting door to land in a heap in the room beyond. The goblins are highly amused ... for the two rounds it takes Wayne and Red Dongya to cut them to pieces.
In the second one, Red Dongya, showing the same capacity for learning from experience as her cousin Dong (and his predecessor Shanks) bursts through a door to face a volley of crossbow bolts from four goblins taking cover behind an improvised barricade. By the book the one bolt that hits should have been her end; she is dropped to 0 HP and a roll on the critical table results in "splattered"; obviously a head shot. But since I'm an old softy and haven't really got into the full B/X mindset when it comes to character death I decided to retcon that Barack (who I was playing as an NPC) had treated her earlier wounds with Cure Light Wounds so she was dazed and knocked to the floor instead. Again the goblins were not so fortunate.
Eventually the party track down and invade the throne room of the goblin "king". The first few rounds of the battle with the king and his retinue are unfortunately vague, though Gil-Fimbriel is slain either by a crossbow bolt or the axe of one of the king's bodyguard. His final words are a request to be interred according to the rites of his people, "Stuffed with catnip and propped up outside the labyrinth with Delast and Finbar." - perhaps he is delirious from the pain.
Following Gil-Fimbriel's death, Red Dongya, Wayne (now armed with the sword +1, +3 vs. spell users) and Barack push into the throne room to engage the crossbow goblins and the king's henchmen, Zarjaz zaps the king himself with a volley of Magic Missile spells; reducing him to 1 HP. At this point two of the king's bodyguard grab and start dragging him out of the room through a side exit whilst his remaining retinue mount a fighting withdrawal.
As soon as this rearguard is sufficiently reduced, Wayne disengages from the fight and followed by Zarjaz pursues the fleeing goblin king. The two burly goblin bodyguard drop the king and turn to face-down the Dwarf. Outnumbered and plagued by poor dice rolling, Wayne is soon on the back-foot. Fortunately Zarjaz is able to end the fight with a zap from his wand of paralyzation; that it has an area of effect is a pleasant surprise for the wizard, though less so for Wayne! Zarjaz despatches and loots the goblin bodyguard, binds the goblin king, relieving him of his battered crown, and then sits down to wait for the paralysis to wear off and Red Dongya and Barack to catch up.
An hour or so later the party interrogate the goblin king as to the whereabouts of his treasure before putting him to the sword. The three chests of goblin treasure prove to be a disappointment though thanks to Red Dongya's unique way of opening them; picking them up and throwing them against a wall, nobody is poisoned by the needle traps. The chests themselves are, much to the parties confusion, empty. Wayne wants to search for the goblin's treasure but the rest of the party decide they don't want to waste the time or lamp oil and the decision is made to descend to the next level.
As previously recorded the stairs down lead out of the same octagonal chamber as the stairs up. Undeterred by a strong draught blowing up the stairs accompanied by the sound of howling wind, the surviving party members descend with Red Dongya and Wayne leading the way. The stairs enter a rectangular room containing two wells, that are the source of the wind, and a weathered statue of a four armed female wearing a crown. The party throw coins down the wells, warily inspect the statue and then consider trying to throw it down one of the wells, it is however too big.
When nothing provokes any reaction the party leave the room via its only other exit, a corridor that heads east 20ft to a T-junction where there is a choice of turning south of continuing east for another 10ft before reaching an archway. They pass through the archway into a 20ft wide hallway that heads north for 70ft before joining an east-west corridor. The walls of the hallway are hidden behind tattered tapestries that are flapping in the wind. After spending about an hour fruitlessly searching amidst the tapestries the party leave, heading west along the corridor.
The corridor terminates after 50ft in a 20ft square room where a pair of giant corpse scavenging insects are picking over the remains of four armoured warriors. The party choose to attack and Red Dongya is almost immediately paralysed by one of the creatures. Wayne follows shortly after, through not before despatching one of the horrors. Pursued down the corridor, Barack and Zarjaz retreat into the hallway. Zarjaz fires his wand time after time but the creature keeps making its saving throw. Eventually Barack is paralysed and it seems that Zarjaz will suffer the same fate when his luck changes and using the last but one charge from the wand he finally freezes the beast.
It takes about an hour for Red Dongya, Wayne and Barack to recover from their paralysis. They return to the room with the dead warriors and searching the corpses they recover sacks containing several hundred coins and 3 gems. They take note that all the warriors are dressed alike in black tabards and carrying shields emblazoned with a white hand; a coat-of-arms with which they are unfamiliar. Zarjaz identifies one of the shields as enchanted and this is added to the treasure haul*.
* Actually Zarjaz didn't even bother to check whether any of their equipment might be of interest despite me adding emphasis when describing their shield. This is the last treasure freebie I'm giving, no more mister nice GM ;-)
At this point it was decided to end the session with the party returning to Ethanfeld to bank their treasure, recuperate and recruit a replacement for Gil-Fimbriel.
