The Thrappled Lemmings had spent the last week telling the villagers of Fikaby tales of their adventures, and now those tales had grown in the retellings. The Thrappled Lemmings were truly legends in their own lunchtime now and the villagers agreed, just as long as the Lemmings kept picking up the bar tab. This had affected their finances in a fairly large way, but they were not too worried. Their next trip into the Temple should leave them enough to retire comfortably on, but their reckoning, as well as being the final showdown with that cursed deranged cultist. To get there sooner, they paid for Wido to go to the healer, who was better than a quack, and had Wido fighting fit in very little time. After a trip to the market to sell more loot and to buy more supplies, the Lemmings were ready.
They trekked the well-worn path to the Temple and descended into the damp cold air of the lowest level of the Temple. Fulrad scouted ahead and reported that there looked like many more opportunities to strike it rich here.
Once more I rolled Undiscovered Depths and added three more exploration markers. Not sure what the odds on rolling that same result so often are, but I'll take it.
There was only one entrance to this level, so the Lemmings formed up and prepared to follow their scout. They were sure the cultist would be here, but did not know what else to expect. They figured they had pretty much annihilated the Synod of Reason by now, so whatever they found would be the remnants of that or the twisted summonings of the deranged cultist and any allies she might have found.
As I have now fought every foe on the cultist list, this level will mostly be occupied by foes from the dungeon denizens list. This is where it gets problematic, because I have painted up all of the options but only used half of them. How can I possibly choose between so many cool options. I let the dice decide and they chose The Eternal Guard, grim-faced warriors who swore an oath of eternal service to their lords. Even in death, they serve to guard their lord's tomb. Those oaths can be twisted, and the cultist most certainly seems to have done that.
"Right, stick together and watch each other's backs. We're going for that cultist as fast as we can and we'll deal with whatever else is here after that, if we can."
Sir Thiebault's face was grim as he gave out instructions. Despite himself he had learned to like this inept bunch of misfits and did not want to lose any of them just as they seemed to be reaching their goal of wealth beyond the dreams of avarice and also becoming and effective unit.
It was not long before Fulrad spotted and engaged the first group of cavern denizens. The Eternal Guard of some long dead lord still roamed these halls protecting them from whoever might wish to steal their lord's treasure. The Lemmings moved into action. Four of them engaged the undead and made fairly short work of them. They could hear in the distance the chanting of the deranged cultist and the atmosphere got damper with each rise in volume.
Onesipe and Drogo headed down a side passage to check it out and found their own undead to engage. Onesipe shot two of them before they could engage him, but the third cut him down quickly. A vaporous shade rose from Onesipe's body.
Drogo swung his axe hard and sliced the Shade in two. Then he turned his attention to the remaining Eternal Guard and cut it down too. As he checked a stash of treasure, he realised he had awoken more of the undead, so he raced away. Finding another stash of treasure, he managed to awake even more of the Eternal Guards. Loaded down, he raced back towards the others.
As Drogo was waking the dead, the others were fighting their way through a horde of undead while the deranged cultist's chanting grew ever louder. Suddenly there was a gushing noise and a cry of triumph.
"Face my water elemental, Thrappled Lemmings! You will drown on dry land!
This was followed by a shout of horror and a squelching, squishy scream.
"Wait! No! Attack them not me! Aaaaarrggh!"
The cultist had failed to control her summoning and the elemental had taken its revenge! The Lemmings arrived just in time to see the cultist suffer the same fate she had promised them. They attacked the elemental with a will. Wido was the first to engage it and fell to a lashing pseudopod, water dripping from his mouth and nose. Sir Thiebault raised Soul Render and attacked the elemental with renewed vigour. His blows fell fast and furious on it and he had soon wounded it in several places. While it was distracted by Sir Thiebault, Fulrad stepped in and administered the coup de grace. The elemental's structure disintegrated and water flowed everywhere.
With undead now approaching from all sides, the remaining Lemmings regrouped in the summoning chamber and prepared to face the oncoming threat. It was a hard fight and more undead were attracted by Lysanthir's spellcasting, but soon all had been laid to rest. It was time to search the caverns properly.
Drogo nearly fell into a poor of green slime, but dodged away just in time. Then they found a good hoard of treasure but disturbing it awoke more of the Eternal Guard. The Lemmings set to with a will. It was not enough. Exhausted from the fighting, Drogo slipped and was laid flat by a skeleton guard. A wispy shade arose from his body and Sir Thiebault dispatched it instantly.
As he did so, an Eternal Guard cut him down and a vaporous shade took his place too.
Fulrad and Lysanthir cut this shade down but the skeletons smashed Fulrad so he fell beside Sir Thiebault and Drogo.
Seeing himself alone against the monsters, Lysanthir activated the sorcery in his Thief's Boots. Suddenly the Eternal Guard and Shade could not detect him. He grabbed as much loot as possible and took to his heels, all the while thanking his lucky stars that he had obtained magical boots that would let him do this. Even with the others out of the picture, he had a great haul of treasure, and he was particularly pleased that he had found the mystic tome that was the object of his quest. With this tome, he would learn even more spells and magical lore that would make him one of the foremost mystics in the land.
As he studied the book by the camp fire, the other Lemmings drifted into camp. They gave Lysanthir sour looks for not aiding them. Apparently, with them lying motionless the Eternal Guard had lost interest and wandered off, so they were able to sneak out in ones and twos, but they would really have expected him to help them. Only Fulrad was actually wounded and that not seriously. Drogo's helmet had taken the brunt of the blow that felled him, while the others had merely been knocked senseless. Despite the sour looks towards Lysanthir, they did not hold a grudge after they reviewed the hoard of treasure that they had accumulated. Gold could mend a lot of rifts between members of The Thrappled Lemmings.
As they sat and pondered how lucky they had been, it began to rain and then a full thunder storm broke out. The bad weather lasted several days with the Lemmings not able to travel easily from their shelter. This gave Fulrad's wounds time to heal, so all the Lemmings were fighting fit by the time they were able to set off for Fikaby again.
So much carnage! I got to the end of the fight with the water elemental and was almost disappointed at how easy this level had been compared to my expectations. And then the guarded stashes started turning up and I had to fight as many undead again as I had originally placed in the delve at set-up. One of the worst things was that anyone they killed became a Shade, thus adding new monsters even as your party is cut down. I felt like anyone taken out of the fight in this way should be killed permanently beacause of the Shades appearing, but chose to roll for injuries in the end. The injuries rolls were phenomenally lucky. I had some herbs that would give me a reroll on the injuries table and used that on Fulrad. The others did not need it. This was just as well because I had no story points left to reroll their injuries.
I must also admit to taking a huge amount of delight in the deranged cultist being slain by her own summoning. That made me cackle when it happened! The rules call for the summoned creature to appear at a random entry point on the table, but in this and the previous three levels, I chose to have it appear in the summoning circle in front of the cultist for narrative reasons. It was just more aesthetically pleasing.
No comments:
Post a Comment