Tallying up the loot- Tim and Gerard loaded, packed, hauled and sold practically everything they found in Quasqueton worth selling that wasn’t anchored to the floor. It took a mule cart and several days and netted them a fortune ….but they didn’t find the greatest riches of all. That was still secret and safe where the previous party of Badgers left it.
Soon the fate of the Treasure of Quasqueton, and the Badgers themselves, will be decided in a special session later this month that will be the Dungeon Days season finale. Will the combined might of all the surviving Badgers be enough to withstand the onslaught of the combined might of all their surviving enemies?
Follow Dungeon Days and find out!
Dungeon Day 9/26
-Harrowing -
Session started with Bardiel doing a Harrow reading for the an answer to the question of the location of the greatest treasure of Quasqueton. The cards revealed a Tyrant, a Hidden Truth, Traps and Tricks, a Bargain, and a Joke – It was an actual reading and turns out how these all relate to the question is scary accurate, can say no more for spoilers.
The Badgers entered Quasqueton though the Great Cave of the Bats. They found where the Black Son and his henchmen were praying to Kabriri, and debated attacking him, but noticed a trap in the floor just in time. Had they stumbled into the trap the Black Son would have turned the tables on them.
Instead they backed up, headed south and discovered the answer to the mystery of what happened to the Mosswood goblin babies. Turns out, the Mosswood goblins were using the Caverns of Quasqueton as nursery, but then the Black Son took their young for himself. And now the Badgers faced the result…
A swarm of scores of goblin baby ghouls, screaming and clawing in the dark!
(each goblin mini represented multiple tiny goblin ghoul babies)
The Badgers camp out until dawn, and as the first light peeks over the trees that mammoth swarm of bats appears again ….and disappears into the north side of the mountain! The Badgers scale down and enter Quasqueton’s Great Cave of the Bats. They move quickly across the guano so deep it will suck them down like quicksand if they stop, and find a side cave with a flight of step out of the muck. Their dwarf cleric runs to the steps so fast he is inside catching his breath before he notices the small Dragon sleeping at his feet! Quickly motioning to the others, the Badgers get the drop on the wyrmling!
The mini in the pic is white, but the dragon was a Red, in fact the very same red wyrmling that was involved in the murder of a gold dragon child that had turned to the Badgers for protection months before. Had the dragon been awake this encounter could have spelled doom for them, for even a baby red dragon is still a Dragon, but surprise gave them the upper hand. After an aborted parley and quick fight the dragon escaped, but left behind his tiny hoard of gold jewels and several items of magic!
Dungeon Day 9/24
-The Tower, The Cave, The Dragon-
Mosswood is still swarming with militia, so keeping the dungeon secret is still a priority. They travel at night and get lost for a while, but other than seeing a vast swarm of bats, so vast it blots out the moon, they make it to Quasqueton with little trouble. But, how to get in the Dungeon without disturbing the great camouflage job the previous party set up? The Badgers discussed this at length back in Sandpoint and eventually decided to climb the sheer cliff and look for a way in via the ruined tower on the top. They had bought and disguised a rope ladder to look like vines and branches, obtained a scroll of spider climb, so up the cliff they went. Brother Gerard actually carried two of the others, like Fezzik up the Cliffs of Insanity.
Finally at the top, however they discover no way in, just a ruined watchtower. What Now?
After camouflaging the dungeon entrance and heading in to get one more delve before Mosswood swarms with Sandpoint goblin hunters, the Badgers finally discovered the fate of their rivals, who mysteriously vanished months ago… Turns out the other adventurers fell into the same pit trap the Badgers did, but these guys weren’t so lucky. Their fighter, encumbered by full plate armor, sank like a stone in the frigid cave pool. Her comrades must have escaped and abandoned her, because when her dripping skeletal corpse clawed to the surface, she seemed quite upset….
She felled Beardo McRagekill with shocking speed, all the while ranting about the Badgers and her former friends alike. Good thing Beardo and Blizzard the Wizard were able to get a couple of shots in while she was climbing out of the pool to soften her up, otherwise Erica the Cleric(a) and Felix might not have been able to finish her off and get him healed up.
She was no mere mindless undead, by the end of it the Badgers had had enough. Even spending all their remaining powers, Beardo was still as weak as a 1st level wizard who made con his dump stat.
And that was when the pack of goblin baby ghouls showed up…
Dungeon Day 9/19
-Hide the Dungeon!-
The village of Sandpoint is sending in the militia with dogs and troops from Magnimar on a punitive mission against the goblins who razed the village of
Riverside to the ground. If they stumble on Quasqueton, the Badger’s claim might get jumped! Months ago, one of the Badgers sold a crystal goblet with the place’s name on it, and they had to deal with a rival party of evil adventurers for weeks afterwards as a result. Those competitors vanished, but the Badgers might not be so lucky if the location of the fabled secret hideaway of the legendary Roghan & Zelligar becomes the gossip of Sandpoint….
dungeoneeringdad:
DM Screen art by Trampier.
David Trampier is a primary influence in the tone I try to achieve in the games I run
Hogus & Shasta quickly (and wisely) retreat into the secret door before the evil adventuring party can fully counter attack. The evil cleric heals his undead adventurers of all the damage done to them by channeling negative energy, just as a player party’s cleric would channel positive energy. Unfortunately for the evil party’s ghoul barbarian, he was still down the hall and out of range. I act out the bararian’s ‘player’, bitching out the rest of ‘his group’ for ‘letting him die’, after his attempt to retreat provoked attacks which brought him down.
Isolated for the moment from the other dungeon defenders, Hogus & Shasta would be in serious trouble if the rest of the evil party went after them, and they were expecting just that. However, unknown to them, I was not playing the evil party as fight-to-the-death monsters, rather as how players play - party member drops, enemy’s too tough, time to head for the door!
The remaining evil adventurers fled to fight another day
….and the Badgers succeeded in saving the harvest!
The Badgers ponder what to do about the evil adventuring party that’s invaded the dungeon they’re defending, as it becomes clear not only is the scenario a role reversal, so is the power balance!
In groups of 2-12 like parties of adventurers, the goblins start to break through the trap doors to the basement in villagers’ homes, to invade the dungeon the players are defending.
The players placed themselves and NPC allies to get best notice of where the attacks are coming from. This made their deployment look a lot like dungeon encounters.
