Kings Of Krell Caverns Episode 2

Working Hard in Dick City (Patrick GM, 9/2/2013)

The Kings of the Krell Caverns make preparations for their journeys in the dark. They gather themselves together in the secret entrance to the Wormpaths below the temple, where certain followers and Vaultdiggers make a last check on supplies.

They are joined by the deep dwarf jester, out of costume. She reveals herself to be Princess Chelle, daughter of the King of Reshte and pursuer of their throne. She tells them that she agreed to come with the ambassador of the king, and has been poisoning the ambassador to cause him to be sick so that the true negotiations go through her. She says this is because her father, the king, and thus the ambassador have no real wish for peace, but she believes if she helps Polar then she in turn can be helped to win the throne of Resthe. Thus Polar is aware of her poisoning of the ambassador.

Ori takes a moment to visit with Polar Lodeseeker, to have him speak with more detail about things he wrote to Ori in the summons to the Kingsmoot. Polar tells him that the message he received from Maras-Dantia was written in a feverish hand, as if the man writing it was in terror or insane. Polar, however, assures Ori that he trusts the sender of the message, and that the things he wrote were either true or had the flavor of truth. In his message he had written that the royal family, Ori's father and brother, had been found slain but didn't say how. He also mentioned strange things happening in Maras-Dantia, and at the very end of the feverish scrawl he mentioned that the sky had darkened and that "things were coming". What any of this means, Polar has no answer to.

The party sets out into the tunnels, and the journey is a slog for a day. They find a safe place to sleep, an off tunnel hidden behind well placed rubble and cave roots. They pass the night without event.

As they continue the next morning, they come across some signs of civilization. A used torch, a broken spear, etc.

From there the tunnel ascends sharply, and opens up into a very wide cavern. So wide that their torch light does not even begin to reveal the ceiling of the chamber. It is large enough to house a whole kingdom; though in fact it only houses a village.

Down into the cavern they spy a collection of homes and hovels with strange circular architecture to them. They are huddled on this side of a large river with dark water, and seemed lit by a mixture of torches and fluorescent mushrooms.

They also see figures walking among the homes, strangely shaped. They seem to be thin limbed, but their bodies are thick and they all seem to be wearing ridiculously large helmets.

Ori and Aglaina instantly recognize them to be Myconids, a form of humanoid intelligent fungus. They are very pacifistic in nature and tend to keep to themselves.

As they approach the village they hear the comforting sounds of civilization, until it is obvious that you are seen. Then there is a hush, and they hear the closing of doors and quick words. At the entrance to the village, they are greeted by three of the figures. They essentially look like humanoid mushrooms, complete with caps. Their faces are flat and eyes wide. Two wield spears, though they are very thin and don’t seem strong. The middle one, however, seems much older, and has lichen coming down his face like a strange green beard. He presents himself as Muchago, the elder of the village (which has been dubbed by the party Dick City).

After some greeting he invites them to his abode. As they walk there they see that the bridge across the Black River is drawn up, and he explains that they've had trouble both on this side of the river and the other. When they go into his house he pleads with them, saying his people are not used to demanding things in trade, but that he will lower the bridge if the party will take care of some of the problems they are facing. Surprisingly the party agrees.

He mentions two major problems, the first being a recent string of kobold thievings. They don't seem too interested in fighting, only in grabbing what they can and hauling tail south of the village. He also says that more menacing than that, from the north there have been Troglodyte sightings, and patrols have been killed by the evil lizard monsters, and any attempt at approaching them has turned to hostilities.

The party the decides to split up. Darrok, Ori, Rengar, and Gwil go south, to the Kobolds. Darrok also seems to have been sampling some of Ori's herbal medicinals. Ori, Osric, Aglaina, and Chelle go north, to seek out the troglodytes.

The Kobolds
Ori, Darrok, Rengar, and Gwil approach the cavern wall in the southern section of the vast cave. Here they find many small caves scattered across the wall, near the Black River. They climb to the first one, and stealthily make their way in where they are presented with a terrible and horribly depressing sight. There are hundreds of kobolds laying about, with other ones tending to them. There has obviously been some sort of plague. Rengar, with his knowledge in healing and divinity, manages to figure out that the pestilence is some sort of course, and after talking with one of the healers they learn that the kobolds swam here from across the river, and that is where they must have picked up the cursed disease. The reason for fleeing was because Troglodytes had pushed them out of their territory.

One asks if they will help, and they agree, and the kobolds are impressed. One asks Rengar, "Did our god send you?" And he tells them yes. They poor, pitiful, sad sad things then rejoice in having saviors, and one smaller one, with wide eyes and limping from the sickness, gifts to Rengar a tapestry that had belonged to his father before he had passed on, presumably in great pain from the horrible disease.

They leave the cave, feeling highly depressed. They return to the village and tell Muchago that they need to cross the river. He acquiesces, and lowers the bridge. Across the bridge, they search and they find a hastily made shrine. It is made up of a dead Myconid chained to a rock, carved and painted with profane signs. They break the chains and break apart the rock, and find a small golden head, that looked to have been part of a statue of a woman. They pocket it and go to find the others.

The Troglodytes
Aglaina, Osric, Chelle, and Urist go north. They climb a rocky hill of sorts, and upon reaching the zenith they can see down into a bowl shaped depression in the cave floor. In the middle is a small completely circular pond, and a ruined temple that looks to have been built by dwarves. Across the pond is one of the ugly creatures.

They ask Chelle to stealth her way around, and they approach directly, keeping the pond between them. It watches them approach, and Aglaina calls over, "We come from the village-" and is stopped when it hurls a spear at her.

Osric, who until now seemed like such a tiny squirt of a dwarf, ran across the water. Didn't walk around, didn't jump in the pond. He ran across the god damned water, and proceeded to hit the Trog with his giant freaking hammer. And then, not to be outdone, Urist jumped across the pond, an unnatural distance, and hit the trog as well. It was dead by the time Aglaina made her away around the lake, obviously at this time regretting not grabbing some magical items from the Temple Requisition.

They then try to figure out where Chelle went, when a body falls from above. It is a trog. They look up and see Chelle waving down at them from the top of the tower of the temple. She lowers a rope and they all climb up.

At the top of the tower is a trap door into the temple. Opening it they spy three trogs down on the main floor, chanting something strange. They also see a broken statue of Moradin, profaned with evil markings of some dark god. Urist jumps down, yelling a battle cry and catches one in the head with his pick, riding the dead trog to the ground. Osric pulls out his magical water bag, and sprays it to force the other trogs to fall down. Eventually they all make it down there and kill off the rest of the trogs.

The four find two tapestries in front of the statue, as well as a headless statuette of an angel, an ancient symbol in the Bahamut faith. They decide to destroy the profaned statue and leave the temple.

The Thrilling Conclusion

The party meets up, and Osric uses his prodigious crafting skills to mend the statuette. Rengar feels that the curse has been lifted, and that the Kobolds should be okay now. The Myconids has a feast and festival in their honor, in which the party partakes in some mushrooms with a side of mushrooms served with a mushroom brew.

Muchago also presents the players with a chest of golden figurines, which seem to be a set for a game or some such. Ori takes one look at them, and decides they are worthless.

QUOTES OF THE NIGHT

  • "I'm setting all my possessions down. I'm going naked." -Ori
  • In regards to a golden statue… "Damnit now we have to collect the set." -Ori
  • "Take the statue back to what the fuck."
  • Group chorus of "Eastbound and down…"
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