The Fantasy SWAT Team

This is part of a series. Click here to go to part 1.

Calendar Start Date: December 2

Calendar End Date: December 16

PLAYERS

Nizan - Human Mystic

Malger Zoilus, Human Thief

Stavros Mutakos - Human Cleric

Shandor Oathbringer - Elven Nightblade

This week two previous players were joined by two new players, one of whom has never played D&D in any form, and another who has only played 5th edition. They rolled their first characters and we were off to the races.

A week was spent in Adamas weeding through some forty-ish hirelings, with a final interview for four of them. The party decided to bring Vladdick Stoneheart and Durand Luskanian, a dwarven fighter, and a human thug, respectively.

Before venturing into the dungeon, the group spent some time in Adamas looking for more ways to earn experience and money. Nizan had the idea to visit the city capital to see if he could become a sanctioned delver. He was referred to a historian named Professor Ivan Nautica. Ivan explained that there are many questions surrounding Dwimmermount, and that he would pay money for information, particularly historical artifacts or even charcoal rubbings of murals. With this information in hand, the party headed to the mountain.

Due to heavy snowfall and particularly harsh weather in general, the party's climb was slowed. Near the mountain, they found the remains of a camp, stripped of supplies. They also found the carcass of what they guessed was a pack animal, mostly-eaten and now entirely frozen. They shrugged and climbed the stairs to the red door.

Immediately inside, they found the body of a deceased adventurer, clutching a bag of gemstones. They followed her blood trail west to the next room, where they discovered a massacre scene: Two dozen corpses, human, orc and the remains of those black skeletons littered the floor. They looted the bodies, cheerful they had found more treasure than the previous three sessions combined. Notably, the found a flask of military oil. They considered heading back to Muntberg, but decided to press onward.

Continuing west, they discovered an old theater. Behind the curtain, they discovered a secret door leading into a long passage. In the end, they heard the voices of orcs and dwarves arguing. They burst into the room to find several orcs interrogating a dwarf tied to a chair. The orcs were surprised and subsequently slain. Within moments, more orcs were pouring through the other door. Thinking quickly, the party used their newly-found military oil, torching half of the orcs instantly. After dispatching the rest (with zero casualties of their own!) the party turned to the dwarf.

He explained that his name was Balfar, and he was part of a dwarven expedition to find a legendary dwarf cemetery. They failed in their mission. He explained they had come across a treasure vault (which later turned out to be a typo; the text said room 7 instead of room 8). The players remembered seeing several dead dwarves in the eastern part of the dungeon and planned to head there immediately. Balfar offered a 500gp reward for being returned safely to Muntberg. 

The players took him to the dungeon entrance, put him on Nizan's horse (the party's only one) and send him back down the mountain. The party wanted more intel on the treasure vault, so approached the metallic talking head to ask some questions. They tried to glean what info they could, but ultimately learned very little; the head's knowledge is about 500 years out of date.

On their way to the dwarf corpses, they were ambushed by more black skeletons. They were able to escape the danger by leaving the dungeon. The skeletons refused to exit Dwimmermount.

Annoyed, the party located the dwarf corpses. This time, they found a key on one of them; a key that would open the doors to this “treasure vault.” With great trepidation, they stood at the threshold and discussed their options before opening the door. After much discussion, they opened it.

…And nothing happened. Cautiously, one of them stepped inside, and a ghostly apparition (a wight) appeared and attacked them, ripping Vladdick Stoneheart in two. They tried to grab some treasure and run, but only Malgor Zoilus succeeded.

They left Durand behind as they ran back to Muntberg with their meager treasure in tow, swearing vengeance on the wight that nearly killed them. In all of these sessions, this is the first real money they've made. Ultimately, it was a decent run, but relatively uneventful.

Behind the Screen

Aside from the error I discovered in the text, everything ran smoothly in this session. Shandor's player had only ever played 5e, but after the game, he announced that ours was his favorite D&D group to date.

The group worked as a unit, almost like a fantasy version of a SWAT team. Their hirelings were conveniently killed, though it's a shame because it was the first time I had really tried to characterize them during play.

Another learning lesson here; the players discovered that certain enemies cannot be hurt by anything less than silver or magical weapons. On the way back to Adamas, they were already concocting solutions.

There has been so little treasure recovered that some of the players had been complaining about the slow progression. I was feeling generous (and hey, it was Christmas time) so I let the players double the XP gained from the recovered gold pieces. This was enough for Malger to level, but everyone else is still pretty far away from level 2.

The journey continues in part 6.