The doorway leads to a room just as pitch-black as the rest of the sewers about half the size of the small house you left. Perched against the corner lies a figure shrouded in robes, posed in a meditative state. It is unresponsive as you move closer, and you notice that he is leaning against the wall. And pale. And dead.
Closer inspection reveals the dessicated remains of a dwarf wearing the robes of a religious pilgrim. His body has also had the blood drained out of his veins, though he is a mite fresher than the other bodies down the hole.
Anyone have any more ideas about what to name the hideout? I'd even be fine with 'The Hideout' as long as I can put capitals on it and avoid confusion.
Gathering up the half-elf's body, you drag him through the hole with you into the main sewer. There is a river of... 'water'... running in front of you with mouldy wooden and steel walkways on each side. Grates and old torch-holders abound. You can go either left or right. Looking to the right reveals a door-sized opening in the wall about twenty metres along the tunnel, whereas left the tunnel just curves naturally.
So just to check, everyone except Taurven and Valerio is headed down the hole now?
Taurven, sorry to do this to you but you still haven't arrived here yet.
Valerio:
You make it back to the sewer entrance and through that into the hideout.
Hmm; at level 10, a summoner can divert two points from his Eidolon to give himself evolutions. Would you allow me at level 5 to divert a single point to give myself the Gills evolution?
That implies a degree of bureaucratic competence not often found in High Fantasy. I can tell you now that you wouldn't find one, or at least not one that was very complete.
Hmm how about we proceed through the sewers and you fellows decide when you've had enough and want to jump to the home base?
Integrating seemed to work fairly well with Valerio, Gunser and Jelani; it's just that its only two days since you all left the sewers and I don't want to have you add new members to the Eight already.
Minor change- he'll be a Sorcerer, crossblooded with Arcane and Fey bloodlines (he's got a small philter of blood in his dill body). Having power come from superior blood is just perfect for him.
I do like Mellany, I hope she stays.
Gridded map was just something I came up with when you fellows decided you wanted to see what was down the trap hole.
Do dungeon crawls work well over PBPs? It might take awhile and require much marshaling of people and waits for communication and such... On the other hand, I would award you all a levelup at the end, and it could be fun. I suppose if everyone agrees.
Awesome. I have the rough outlinings of a some ideas here so tell me what you think-
Name: Sir Rodney Whifflebottom
Race: Soulbound Doll
Class: Wizard
Alignment: LN
Backstory: Turned into a doll, an inconvenience he refers to as a 'frightful bore', Sir Rodney seeks to return to high society and resume the scheming, politicking and socializing that all well-bred gentlebeings breathe like water.
Description: Rides his mount, Bertie, a well-trained hawk, usually letting out cries of 'Tally-ho!' and 'Onwards and upwards, good fellows!'
*scratches head* okay I suppose. But if you want to start learning the sewer system I'm going to need to insist you make a map or scratch markings on the walls, rather than just relying on memory or knowledge checks. Imagine the Oblivion sewers five times the size with no minimap or quest pointer... you're going to need some help.
There's a place that may be convenient I designed around the corner once you enter the sewers; may be a good place, and without darkvision or a light source the half-elf won't be able to find the little hole you guys came through, and he has no reason to suspect it is there.
Can I suggest waiting a few minutes for Taurven, however? Just to get most of the party together; Valerio has said he's headed back to home base so he'll have to wait a while longer before we get back.
Sorry I've been away, had a final exam to do. Let's see here.
Your current plan is to leave the half-elf somewhere down in the sewers and then continue via the sewers to the home base. Can I ask how exactly you're going to navigate your way through? The base is forty-odd minutes away by foot and you're going to be trying to navigate your way through a subterranean labyrinth with (I presume) no compass and (definitely) no map. Sorry if I sound scornful just not quite sure what your plan is.
Taurven I'm afraid you and Valerio are still a little ahead of us in the sewers so you're going to have to wait a little longer.
Is there anything I'm missing? Should I be designing a sewer (dungeon) crawl?
This game may be an excellent fit for a race i've been aching to try out; it's player-made not third party but its based on a Paizo creature and it's pretty balanced.
There's a simple little bar and slider under the flap; if too much weight steps on it the bar moves, door opens and person tumbles. You can easily fiddle with the bar so it won't close, and ten minutes with a hammer or some tool will allow it so the trap door will never open.
Oubliette?
So just to check, you're going to somehow lock the half-elf down there and leave him nothing to eat or drink except rats and sewer 'water'?
Most of the bodies contain no identifying materials; their clothes are quite weak and tattered. Two have very rusty daggers and one of those has a rotten wooden club.
-The pit is... let's say 20ft deep.
-The pit is wide enough for a fat man to fall down it, so maybe 1.5 body widths
-The rungs start five feet from the top of the pit, so there is a significant gap
-At the bottom the pit widens so there is room for maybe ten people to stand comfortably, although some of that space is taken up by the corpses
-There is as spotted a small hole wide enough for a man to roll sideways along, tall enough to move under while prone.
-Is there anything else you would like to know?
-Sorry about the 'ha ha'- difficulties involved in getting out actually only occurred to me after you guys talked about getting out of the hole.
-Also sorry if it seems like I'm 'exploiting the control of information'; when outlining the difficult roll I was just trying to set out the difficulty in trying to get out by rolling, implying you might want to think creatively for another way; grappling hook maybe? I don't know. Not intending to play 'against' you guys. If you'd like I can explain why I decided to have that 5ft gap between the rungs and the trap door.
It is a pretty deep pit; but fair enough. Just sounded like you were all happily proceeding down the pit. And from its size it is probably small enough that you can 'chimney' up.
I don't want you trapped down, I just want you fools properly penalized for clambering down a dark hole and not leaving yourselves a way of getting out :) But if you left a team member up there to help you out then I have no problem with your quick escape. With Gunser's suggestion, or anything else reasonable, you all clamber out fine.
So, I may be wrong, but everyone has descended into the pit. The rungs only start 5ft from the top. Everyone trying to get up, roll be DC20 acrobatics to jump up to the top. If you miss the check, roll me a DC14 reflex save to grab the rungs before you fall into the pit onto the bodies.
The bodies are splayed out with shattered legs and arms; they fell.
Mellany detects no magic other than that which is being carried by you all.
The thin passage is made of hard compacted dirt and extends twenty feet away from the hole.
With the torch and Blast's darkvision you make out a wide sewer passage. Map.
Taurven, you and Valerio make your way back to the hideout; because of the walking time you're a little ahead of us so you two can just converse while we finish with the pit.
Gunser notices that while dessicated, all the corpses have been entirely drained of blood leaving their flesh a pasty whitish-yellow.
Atkins is initially suspicious but once you set out the gold- which he whisks away with the speed of a cobra- he happily starts babbling away.
Long story short, he's a true believer of Kore's; he thinks all tieflings are demon-scum and their very existence poisons the earth for decent hard-working folk. As for how he alerted the gnome, he just walked to the other side of the house and yelled down to a passing street kid he recognized who works for the gang.
Yeah sorry, someone made this mistake before, I didn't explain properly. There are two separate gangs- the Tail Takers, and the extortion gang. They are unconnected and separate.
There is something odd about the bodies but you cannot tell what. You notice that, against the west wall, there is a small opening near the flaw; tall enough for a prone man to slide under.
As you descend down the tunnel, the stench of mortal remains grows until you reach the bottom and find a collection of about four corpses and twice that many skeletons.
DM Hetero after looking over things I realize there's something I haven't told you and Toranoko. Whoever's character is chosen won't have him/her walk up to the party in the street and join them; we'll be retconning it so that they were one of the group who escaped the prison with them.
You don't need to change any of the backstory DM unless you want to.
The pit is so deep you are unable to see the bottom; you make out however that about five feet down there is the beginning of rungs.
Valerio:
After looking around, you decide that Atkin is completely dirt poor. When he sees your flail he starts back a bit and starts awkwardly cowering.
Taurven:
Bob hesitates for a moment and nods. "I'll put someone on it; they'll follow them to wherever they're going. We shouldn' try it, they or someone'll spot us and that'll be it for us."
Valerio is talking with an old fellow at the alley, Taurven is with bob in a different alley across the city and everyone else + the half elf and the guard are in a boarded-up tiefling couples' house.
Bob is not amused and grabs you by the arm, pulling you into the alley. "What's this I hear about you tailing a gang of tail-takers of all people? Did you even realize you were being watched? Not all of us street kids are on your side, you know." For emphasis, without looking, Bob reaches out and grabs another arm as a kid passes by the alley; dragging him in with you, Bob kicks him in the balls and slaps him across the cheek. "Piss off, Slitely. Thus un's with me."
Leaving your follower lying on the ground groaning quietly, Bob leads you further along the alley. "So, mind telling me what you were thinking, venturing 'cross this great ol' city of ours without Bob to guide you?"
Bighead Inkyskin was born into the goblin tribe of the Long-Necks. Most of the little green devils prided themselves on their very tall and very thin necks, often laughing and saying "Long-necks see tall-folks coming first!". Bighead unfortunately was born with almost no neck, but was gifted with an abnormally huge head (Balloon-Headed racial trait). While his mother was irritated and tried to eat him, Chief Dogtail had a brainwave. Bigger head. Bigger head meant bigger soul, and bigger brains. So, Chief Dogtail took the young nipper into his hut and taught him to read, figuring the boy would be able to learn more words than other goblins before his soul rotted. Time passed and Bighead grew into a powerful wizard with knowledge of many, many words. Lots of Long-Necks disliked and feared him for this, but he summoned fire a few times and slaughtered some tall-folks when they came with axes and that, coupled with poor goblin long-term memory, kept him safe and moderately popular. Dogtail, at Bighead's pleading, sent him out into the wide world to learn more words, on the condition that he would come back and teach them to chief when he was done.
Smarter than other goblins, Bighead had a different idea about his huge cranium. He decided that all souls were of equal size; but, with his big head, maybe he could fit two in there! So he made himself a soul from the words in the chief's books, which he stole from tall-legs, and used that to store and cast his magic words. After his first few months out of the village and among the tall-folks, Bighead's word-soul became even more different to his goblin-soul, developing its own tongue and thoughts. Good thing Bighead managed to keep control and switch between the two, otherwise he might not go to the great god Hadregash's side when he did.
By the way, Aleksandyr- evil creatures with less than 5 HD don't ping on your evil radar. Thought you might find that interesting, and it's something a paladin would know.
The rider unsteadily comes to his feat; he stretches his leg and nods in evident satisfaction as it functions properly. Divesting himself of his armour, he straps a sword to his hip and takes the profferred gold, and heads out the door without a look back.
