Session 3 Recap & Experience Points Award

Session 3 Recap & Experience Points Awards

Not long after their meeting with Tay-Wen Kiru and Sylvan Rao had ended, a note slipped under the door of the company’s room at Iriard’s Roadhouse.  It was a parchment record from the House of Opposition, which told of a wanderer who’d visited a monastery west of Tarlak and disclosed his role in sealing the Mud Cave of Horl on the orders of Lord Soo-Kiru Kiru.  A local boy had been found petrified—albeit temporarily—in stone, and a ranger of the local wood elf tribe (the Quilderran) had tracked the beast responsible to the Mud Cave.  This ranger, Kerlinala, descended with her team descended in search of the creature.  But Soo-Kiru simply had the cave entrance sealed behind her, then to conceal his treachery disappeared the workers who carried out the task.

The note’s deliverer evidently meant not to be discovered.  Yet the gnome Ossik, ever alert, chased down and confronted the man.  He proved none other than Litaan Rigo, the young acolyte in the service of Mata Vuvu at the House of Opposition.  Rigo, not hiding his annoyance at this detection, disclosed having brought the note without Vuvu’s permission.  He denied having any other knowledge that could be of use to the party—but, like Tay-Wen Kiru had earlier, Rigo warned that Lord Soo-Kiru has many spies in Horl and was likely well aware of the company’s planned incursion to the Mud Cave.

Undeterred, the adventuring party proceeded at dusk the following evening to the Horl riverbank, where they soon met up with Tay-Wen and Sylvan to plan their entrance to the Mud Cave.  The women, perhaps sensing their companions’ inclination to deal violently with the oafish guards assigned to the tower overlooking Mud Island, insisted on the chore themselves.  They knew these men, Tay-Wen said: the imbecile Marol, and his mediocre partner, Okerville. 

Within moments, Tay-Wen and Sylvan had occupied both guards at the watchtower.  While they later explained having bound and gagged Okerville and shoved him into a closet, the dullard Marol they had simply charmed.  As the company made its way to Mud Island, they found Marol among them, eagerly offering his assistance. 

Having reached the island, the party quickly located the cave entrance—an improved, stonework feature.  But Soo-Kiru had sealed the entrance by covering it with a heavy wooden, iron-banded door, on which had been piled numerous small boulders.  With Marol’s assistance, the group quickly cleared the boulders—then sent Marol back to the watchtower to fetch a sledgehammer, which the group used to smash rusty chains holding the door in place. 

Having breached the entrance, the company dismissed Marol, signaled for Tay-Wen and Sylvan to join them, and descended into the Mud Cave.  Heeding the fate of Kerlinala, the wizard Greyndalf placed an alarm spell upon the entry as the group followed a long, winding passage downward into the darkness.

Before long, as the artificial stonework gave way to natural cavern, the ominous scrape of metal on the stone cave floor alerted the company to its first encounter with the residents of this Mud Cave: skeletons, draped in tattered armor, and striking at the adventuring company with old spears and rusty axes.  A long and difficult battle raged in the narrow cavern passage, but the company soon gained the upper hand when the dwarf Jowdain channeled the mode of the beast, shattering two of the undead minions in a single flourish.  In the aftermath, the company found a withered box of coins, with also a small ring and a silvered dagger. 

Continuing their descent, the group came upon the first of several brick wall it encountered in the cave.  Hoping for a shortcut to the nightweed trove, the group tried doggedly to defeat the construction—the burly dwarf Jowdain slamming it with his axe, and the mage Greyndalf blasting the wall with his thunderwave spell.  But to no avail; the solidly-built wall withstood these assaults, and for their efforts the party only drew the attention of two more skeletons—which the group quickly dispatched.

Moments later the party came to a small chamber burrowed into the cave wall with an exposed calcite vein.  Abandoned mining tools lay about, which the gnome Ossik deftly utilized to chip two valuable crystals from the surface.  Bringing the pick axe along, the party quickly put the same to use when it happened upon a second brick wall.  This wall being of significantly weaker construction, and the company being possessed of proper tools, the group reduced this barrier to rubble in short order.  But before the path was cleared, however, several enormous spiders appeared in the breach—hungry, and soon hostile.  At the first sign of the spiders, the cleric Gambol invoked his speak with animals ability to inquire of the lead spider as to the location of the nightweed.  The spider, not being in a particularly talkative mood, related that the nightweed was by the “stone monster” and that he hadn’t ever seen any humans in the cave—though the time period to which the spider’s information related was ambiguous, owing to the unknown expected life span of a subterranean arachnid.  Having answered the cleric’s questions, the spider suggested group could avoid becoming the spiders’ next meal by producing a satisfactory alternative provender.  But the party, expecting their visit to the cave would be a short one, had nothing of the kind to offer.  Only the elves had brought any food at all, and their paltry rations were woefully short of the spiders’ requirements.  And so the spiders attacked, badly wounding the gnome Ossik in the assault.  Yet the creatures were no match for the adventuring party—in particular the mage Greyndalf, who blasted one with his firebolt, catching a second alight.  After dealing quickly with these three, the company advanced into the spiders’ main lair, where five more spiders attacked and were again bested shortly by Greyndalf’s flames.

Upon surveying the spider room, the group found several leading outward, into the deeper reaches of the Mud Cave.  Which path the company will choose, and what they might find upon it, is a tale for another day.

Adventure Notes:

·      Skeleton.  Having stared at point-blank range into the vacant glow of skeletal eyes, this foe is no longer a mystery.  Though not especially powerful or skilled in combat, skeletons are tough and fearless.  They appear to have about 10-18 hit points, and wear scraps of mail that provide an armor class around 13. 

·      Cave Spider.  Another creature your travels have acquainted you with is the cave spider.  Measuring about two meters in diameter and usually appearing in groups, the cave spider is a dangerous enemy.  Like most spiders, the cave spider can walk on walls and ceilings, and likes to strike by surprise.  Its bite inflicts 2-5 points of physical damage, plus a necrotic poison that can cause an additional 1-4 points of damage unless the victim makes a saving throw (Constitution DC 9).  On the bright side, cave spiders are frail (1-3 hit points) and rather easy to hit (armor class 12).  

·      Marol Dugleish.  Of the two idiot sentries posted to Soo-Kiru Kiru’s watchtower across from Mud Island, you met the duller one, Marol Dugleish.  Well, you sort of met him—Marol was under the influence of a charm spell at the time, and when it briefly wore off Marol was charmed a second time by Greyndalf.  You may wish to take note of this, should you encounter Marol again, as in your experience, charmed persons typically understand what has happened to them after the enchantment dissipates.  Marol might just be dumb enough to be the exception—or maybe not.

Experience Points & Inspiration 

Preliminary note: In this campaign, experience points are awarded for overcoming obstacles, solving problems, and achieving goals.  Although experience points are typically awarded for defeating adversaries, note that (in this campaign) it is not necessary to actually kill an adversary to earn those experience points if the adversary can be defeated in another way.   Experience points are earned collectively and then divided among the player-characters.  In addition to experience points, individual players can earn inspiration for creativity, superior tactics, and especially strong role-playing.

The party earned 420 experience points for defeating six skeletons and eight cave spiders in battle.  This award is divided evenly among Greyndalf, Gambol, Jowdain, and Ossik, with a fifth share divided between the non-player characters along on the adventure (Tay-Wen and Sylvan).  This amounts to 84 XP per character.

In addition, the party also earned experience for the following accomplishments:

·      Confronting and successfully questioning Litaan Rigo (50 XP);

·      Returning the Stone Boy scroll to Litaan Rigo (50 XP);

·      Gaining entry to the Mud Cave without violence (100 XP);

·      Recovering the calcite crystals from the mining vein (25 XP);

·      Successfully obtaining intelligence from a cave spider (40 XP)

These experience points (total of 265 XP) are divided among the player-characters only, for a total of 66.25 XP apiece.  Let’s go ahead and round that up to 67 XP each.

As for inspiration, the elven mage Greyndalf was impressively tactical in the utilization of his spells—particularly his thunderwave and burning hands attacks, which greatly weakened a pair of skeletons and nearly wiped out a host of cave spiders.

Final Session 3 totals:

·      Jowdain acquitted himself well in battle and earned 151 experience points. 

·      Gambol pleased his deity and gained 151 experience points.

·      Greyndalf remained a cunning and resourceful adversary; he acquired 151 experience points and earned one point of inspiration.

·      Ossik never saw a risk he didn’t want to take.  But his luck held true, and he gained 151 XP.