5-1 Victory in the Bone-Bowl
(Rest well, Hektor. Steel and honor guide you beyond)
Day: 8, Mo/Yr: 4/12, 2993[AEP] irl: Feb 16th, 2025 Session 6
Scribe: Meric (Shadowfax)
GM: EvilTables
The Original Party:
| jdsull | dcterra | Shadowfax |
 |  |  |
| deViate | Saracor | Zondervain |
 |  ☠ Killed by a pack of Skeleton Baboons |  |
Added:
| Saracor |
| Alexos [Cleric] |
Kronos moves us from our current lodgings to make room for a seedy out of town group referred to as the Dalton’s Darlings. The Dalton’s Darlings are known for their luck at finding treasure, pilfering from other adventurers and a tendency to let their parties go a little wild until not a few attendees land in the Hospitium Sancti or take up permanent residency at the local crypt. They’re in town for their annual ruckus and mayhem raising event. Little does Kronos know that at the end of the day our names will carry a little more weight in these parts and knaves around will refer to us in hushed whispers as the “Bone Crushers”.
We set out again for the Bat house, taking our time to travel a non-direct route to avoid people seeing us make a path to the basement, and notice the ruins above are a little more ruined as a protruding spire has collapsed looking as if taken down by some type of flying object or projectile. We search the skies for the dragon but don’t see anything. As we head down below the ruins we see more centipedes have taken up patrolling the halls. It may be time to rid us of those pests.
We then hatch a plan to smoke out the Bats in the Bat room. With oil we set fire to the rubbish/guano pile in the middle of the room. After setting the fire we move behind the northern door to take shelter. We hear a loud popping noise and feel a sudden pressure wave on the closed door. We wait until the smoke has cleared and search the room. Unfortunately, we did not empty out the oil vat in the adjoining room and it was responsible for the larger explosion. Perhaps that was for the best as it probably took out a few bats in the process.
We find a destroyed metal flask in the burnt trash remains as well as 220 warm gold pieces. Smelling the broken pieces of the flask it smells like very fine perfume (perhaps an incense) also burnt papers and a small leather note completely burnt. Oops! Maybe not so quick to torch the place next time boys?
A bronze club / Baculus (Magic Rod) is found set inside the chimney in a corner. Written in Mythic on the baculus – “The cause may be hidden but the fate is obvious”
We find a new room to the west with a very foul smelling 3’wide diameter hole in the floor. Almost the entire party is immediately fixated on this hole and the possibility of climbing into it. Everyone except Meric, who mentions, “I think it’s the dungeons toilet,” but nobody is listening. The hole opens into a wider diameter (6’?) farther down. The twisting shaft goes far beyond 150ft of our rope and every twenty feet or so the hole takes a sideways jog. Meric observes the excitement in the party but does not bring up his 3rd level wall climbing skills.
“In the back room, there’s a hole in the floor
You better not go in there if you don’t know what that’s for”“Too Long in the Wasteland” by James McMurtry
On to the Skeletons…
We take off one of the doors from the south west of the Bat room. Our Plan: open the skeleton door and immediately push the borrowed door into open space to serve as a barricade.
Hector goes down, killed by one of the dog-like skeletons (Baboons). Two Baboons are killed before he falls, and we holy water a 3rd who eventually dies
.
We head to the sludge pool for refreshments and light wound treatment. Belaros drinks twice gaining health then it’s back to the inn for a short rest and a shopping list containing more flasks of holy water.
We see Kronos with 14 mercenary guys heading out from the broken head lugging a slain pig to the south for a barbeque? (The mercenaries are lightly equipped).
The party buys 6 vials of holy water (not cheap) and picks up Alexos [Cleric]. On the way back to revenge. On the way at the top of the pyramid, we see a number of bats flying around the pillars (probably the ones we evicted).
With flasks and holy water ready we go back to the skeleton room for the remaining Baboon and big guy skeleton. We kill the Baboon with various missile attacks and then the big guy charges out of the room stepping over the rope we set up to trip him. All the lobed Holy water misses him. The party backs into the room, allowing for everyone to get around him in melee and continue their assault. The skeleton finally goes down from a bash in the head from Alexos with the Baculus while Agoston stabs at it from behind. The party rejoices in their win.
Searching the room we find only bookshelves collapse and eroded. However, we find a secret door to the south. In this room there is a set of golden altar wear and a small chest. Feathers opens the chest with his dagger to find 350GP inside! The Altar wear includes: two candelabra (200 gp), 3 chalices (100 gp each), 2 plates (100 gp each), a censer (150 gp), and an ebony and ivory image of Thoth in ibis-headed form (1,000 gp).
We do note that these two rooms are a good place to store things as they are hidden and require a key, which we have. Something for us to ponder.
DM Thoughts
Fire is one of those things that I find a bit difficult to adjudicate. I am actually not sure how flammable guano is, and it’s hard to take into consideration the air flows and stuff for things below ground.
I am also thinking a bit more on how much change/reactivity to introduce to the dungeon areas they’ve been in before. I want to keep the world dynamic and reactive, but at the same time if it’s too much it can feel like fiat or a deliberately introduced plot twist which sorta gets away from the idea of a world that doesn’t necessarily care about them as the adventurers.
Also interested to see how things develop with Kronos and the inn, the sinister aspects of him came out are showing up a little bit and the stuff that he values (mainly money) are becoming a bit clearer.