H&Y Infinite Open Table Session 13 (Morkath and the Manticore)
Characters: Ronby the Former Magistrate (human 3) + Unit 757 (Kobot 1) Xavos the Headsman (elf 3) + Donut (elf 1) Schmelly Goober the Musician (human 1)
Starting Date: Summer 26, 6023
Down into the Depths
Ronby and Xavos discuss possible avenues for an expedition and decide that going back down the hole in the Puddlegrass is their best option. They pick up a new Delver, Schmelly Goober and purchase some provisions for the adventure ahead. They head out east of town, into the hole beneath the giant snake skeleton, and down into the depths.
The party heads to Orange Skull goblin territory, hoping to use their rope ladder again to get down into the deeper caverns where they got the Kobots before. Having no metal to trade to the goblins for new access, Schmelly played a rousing rendition of the Nutcracker on his flute for the goblins in payment. He called the song "Grimshank's Rousing Song of Courage" (for Grimshank was the goblin's name you see) and utilized the power of extreme flattery to bargain for use of the rope ladder, which the goblins acquiesced to. The party climbed down and headed west on the stone bridge instead of east, hoping to find exciting metal objects in the other direction.
The party found a warm windy tunnel with a spiral staircase in it covered in bones, and headed down it.
Lair of the Manticore
At the bottom of the stairs, the PCs saw several groupings of strange iron-bone spikes sticking out of the walls. They harvested a few slots of these (intending to trade them to the goblins) and moved on to come to a large circular cavern with a pond in the center. In the middle of the pond was a statue of an imp holding one of the spikes in a throwing position. As the party watched, they saw a troglodyte hunting party come through the other side of the cavern and watched the imp statue fire a volley of spikes at them, killing the majority.
None of the Delvers wanted to tangle with the imp statue after that, so Xavos used his new Summon Giant Hand spell to reach out to the imp and rip its arms off. The spell was greatly successful to the party's surprise. Schmelly waded through the pond to the wrecked statue to search it, finding a pair of ruby lenses within its skull. He looked through the lenses and saw an angry old man face, then heard yells that corresponded with sounds beyond a door in the cavern. Ronby tossed their Ring of Party into the pond to finally finish their assigned task from Yegorov (a task given in Session 1!), gaining the god's favor.
The party fled as the door opened to reveal an angry manticore, running south into an adjoining hallway. Donut found a secret door and opened it, losing a lot of blood to a simple puzzle in the process (-1 STR, -1 DEX). The party piled into the secret door as the manticore charged them, closing it just in time.
Shrines and Schemes
The party found themselves in a secret room dominated by a bone altar. Upon the altar was a bleached minotaur skull with a dead minotaur draped over the top of the altar. The party looted the minotaur, specifically looting his massive axe.
While doing so, they brushed up against the altar and learned it was the domain of Kurucz, the god of minotaurs. Kurucz really wanted the party to go take the minotaur's axe and murder the manticore in a frontal assault, though he also kept calling them weaklings so the party wasn't really interested in what the god had to say. Ronby answered Kurucz's demand by casting Spell Decay on the shrine then consecrating the altar's destruction to Yegorov. Ronby was rewarded with a Mask of Beetlefriend and a Tome of Dust, which Xavos grabbed from the destroyed altar.
Fearing that they would indeed have to kill the manticore to leave, the party then set out to make a trap. Ronby drove spare spikes into the wall around the doorframe and used strips from the dead minotaur's cloak to suspend the minotaur's axe as a crude pendulum trap. Xavos's spare rope turned into a net, and the whole party minus Schmelly lined up to clobber whatever creature walked through the door next. Schmelly himself walked out into the hallway and began crashing his cymbals together to get the manticore's attention.
The manticore did take notice at this point and chased Schmelly back into the secret room. The trap went off without a hitch, gravely wounding the manticore. The rest of the party leaped on the beast as well, trapping his wings in the net and trapping him within a pit of quicksand using Xavos's Quicksand spear. Once the beast was slain, the party dragged his body out and harvested as much as they could off it, gathering his claws, spikes and poison-tipped tailspike. The party decided to leave the rest for Yegorov and headed north to check out the Manticore's lair now that it's owner was dead.
Greed is Good
Within the lair (through the door they had originally seen the manticore come from), the party found a pile of old adventurer's weapons and armor along with another set of ruby lenses matching the ones Schmelly had found before. The party looted the armor, shoving as much as possible onto the new Beetle Friend that Ronby summoned with their mask.
The party then left the cavern and the lair and headed north, the same direction the troglodytes had fled to earlier. They found themselves in a room with a giant demon statue with ruby eyes and brazier held in front of it (yes, the one from the AD&D front cover). Schmelly climbed the statue and gazed deep into one of the statue's eyes, finding it to be the prison of a dead god named Morkath.
Morkath explained that he died out due to a lack of followers and that he was pretty sad about it. Schmelly offered to be his first new follower in exchange for the title of High Priest and sick powers, which Morkath agreed to. This resurrected Morkath as a new god, now the God of Petty Curses, Cremation and Minor Burns. Schmelly was granted the power to cast the "Coin on a String" spell once per day.
The party headed north, finding an identical demon statue that Morkath claimed to not know anything about. Donut climbed the statue and stared deep into the eyes of the demon statue... finding a giant fiery laser that incinerated the poor guy. The party decided that that was a good sign that they should leave, and so they did.
On the way back, they stopped in at the Orange Skull goblins and traded a lot of their metal armor for a handful of magic items described below (Anthill Gloves, Sandstone Ring, Mageslayer's Axe).
Wrap-up
Unit-757 was damaged in the fight with the manticore. Ronby pays 30 coins to Rolof Redmountain to find them a worthy smith that can repair the strange kobot.
The majority of the metal armor and weapons were sold to Rolof. The entire stock of magic items held by the Purple Crystal and Orange Skull goblin tribes are now expended.
XP Split: 2500 per PC
Coins split: 1325 per PC
Magic Item Appendix
Tome of Dust
Can cast each 1/day.
- Fiery Breath - The caster breathes a 15' cone of flaming particles from their mouth, dealing damage as a greatsword to any creature within the cone and setting them on fire. Any flammable objects in the cone are also set alight.
- Sparkle Cloud - The caster conjures a 10'-radius cloud of glitter and sparkles at their current location. All creatures in the cloud (including the caster) are blind until the leave the cloud, and any creature outside the cloud can hit any creature inside the cloud without making an attack roll. Effect lasts 10 minutes.
- Incense Spell - The caster targets the spell of another willing caster as it is cast, turning the spell into incense. When the incense is next burned, the spell will take effect, targeting all creatures within 10' of the burning incense. Incense remains potent until next sunrise.
Mask of Beetlefriend
Insects see you as a friend. 1/day you can summon a giant beetle to follow you around as a mount. It has slots like a mule (its always the same beetle).
Coin on a String
The caster summons an illusionary coin within sight. They can manipulate it telekinetically as long as no other creature touches the coin. The coin lasts until the next sunrise.
Anthill Gloves
1/day, you can turn into an ant for 10 minutes. As an ant, you can climb walls and go where ants can go (you are very small).
Sandstone Ring
1/day you can cover yourself in a pile of illusionary sand (15'x15', 10' high). Lasts for an hour or until someone touches the sand.
Mageslayer's Axe
When you strike an enemy with this axe, they can't cast spells for 10 minutes. Attacks as +1 battleaxe.