Chronicles of Arcania: B/X Homebrew game.

Game Master Peet

Shrugs, You got me there.. I have no idea. But we've seen all manner of strange things in this place thus far!

If there be anything of value we would see it tumble out with the wriggly ones. I think you have a good idea there Fistep. For a sword-wielder.

"Why would a basket of snakes be in an empty room? Why would people run around in a frog mask and think that we're goblins?"

"Why would a basket of snakes be in an empty room? Why would people run around in a frog mask and think that we're goblins?"

Touché.

3:30 PM, Day 4

1d6 ⇒ 5

The party returns to the room with the snake basket. The basket is sitting in the middle of the floor, where the party left it.

So what is the plan?

For the record, if characters start a combat round with a readied action (such as everyone getting in position around the snake basket before someone opens it) and the monster is not surprised, then the characters function as if they rolled a natural 12 (the maximum) for initiative.

Most of the time this will guarantee that you go first (player-characters win ties) but if a monster has an ability that improves its initiative it might potentially roll higher than you.

The same goes in reverse. If the party of orcs have set up an ambush their initiative that round would be 12, but some of you could potentially roll higher than 12 and act before the orcs.

Brathas has suggested using a grappling hook to pull the basket on its side from a distance, with Ana and Zynazyr ready to cast Sleep.
Fistep has suggested dumping the snakes into a jar of the charlatan , placing the other urn somewhere else. Ferrous likes this plan.
Brathas votes for his, but if the latter is chosen he will suggest putting the second urn in a burlap sack. And he will use his keen eyes to observe whatever tumbles out of the basket.

Shrugs, It was just a suggestion, might as well go with yours but have Ferrous and myself read with weapons and shields to strike

Walia says, "Fistep, my son, can you read?" as he chuckles in a typically friarly manner.

I like the urns idea, but worry that if the basket is wider than the urns a lot of the snakes will tumble out on the ground and not into the urn mouth. That's all.

Ana mentally prepares herself, ready to cast her sleep spell.

Walia has out his sling in case he needs it.

I like the urns idea, but worry that if the basket is wider than the urns a lot of the snakes will tumble out on the ground and not into the urn mouth. That's all.

Brathas is correct. The top of the basket is large, about 36" wide. The mouths of the urns are perhaps 8". So without constructing some kind of funnel it would be hard to get things to go from the basket into an urn.

In light of this I will assume that we are going with the grapnel plan.

Brathas gently hooks his grappling hook under the lip of the basket's lid, then pays out some rope until he is across the room. Everyone else gets ready to engage what may come out.

He yanks the rope, pulling the lid aside!

Inside the basket are two black 5' long snakes. They sit on top of a bed of coins and gems (looks like mostly silver pieces).

1d6 ⇒ 2

The snakes are surprised! Ana casts her sleep spell...

2d8 ⇒ (8, 3) = 11
save 1: 1d20 ⇒ 11
save 2: 1d20 ⇒ 12

Both snakes lie down and close their eyes. They are asleep!

What now? Handling a snake will very likely wake it, but the snake will do nothing in the round it is 'waking up.' An attempt to kill a sleeping snake with a weapon automatically hits and does double damage, but if it fails to kill the snake the snake will wake up.

"Excellent work! Do we have a large sack we can place the snakes in? I'm willing to grab one of them. I think I'm fast enough to get it into a sack before it wakes up and bites me."
Would that be correct? Does Brathas think that to be feasible?

Why not just kill them?

"Well, aside from the fact that they are good eating, there is no need. We have them subdued and we have access to the treasure. Take it, leave the snakes be, and move on." Ana shrugs, giving her opinion.

If killed, the snakes can be eaten (though simple precautions must be taken to avoid the venom). If kept alive and secure, the snakes may have some other use, creativity permitting.

The treasure cannot be safely accessed while the snakes are sleeping on it. Either the snakes would need to be killed or somehow removed.

So, do you want to:

A: Kill the snakes and harvest the meat?
B: Grab the snakes and put them in a bag, taking it with you?
C: Grab the snakes and put them in a bag, but leave the bag behind?
D: Something else?

Gestures to Anna and Ferrous... chop the head off the other one, I've got this one he says as he readies his blade. Food is more necessary the clever tricks

Walia says, "We should concentrate on one at a time and make sure it is dead. Worst case scenario is if we don't kill either of them and have to fight both." as he readies his mace.

But clever tricks are the best, Brathas thinks to himself. He silently pouts. His dreams of throwing a bag of snakes into a goblin lair evaporate.
Brathas reluctantly moves over to the basket, drawing his handaxe and gripping it with both hands. He awaits Fistep's signal.

Or they could just bite you through the bag. ;)

Ana lifts her axe almost regretfully, bringing it down just behind the snake's head. As she lets the weapon fall, she whispers a prayer to some unfamiliar deity. The blow is a solid one.

Damage: 2d10 + 8 ⇒ (7, 5) + 8 = 20

In unison with the others, Walia brings his mace on the snake 2d6 ⇒ (3, 4) = 7

Zynazyr watches from a distance as the others take care of the snakes.

Because a killing blow has to basically hit or sever the head, I'm going to say that only two people can line up properly to actually make a coup-de-grace. So...

Ana and Wallia position themselves close to the heads of the snakes, and they strike!

...The blow is a solid one.

Damage: 2d10 + 8 ⇒ (7, 5) + 8 = 20

Ana cleanly decapitates her snake.

...2d6 ⇒ (3, 4) = 7

Wallia's blow strikes the snakes' head, and there is a splash of blood, but the snake starts thrashing around wildly!

The snake is badly wounded but not dead. Anyone else that was ready can make a normal attack roll to hit and kill the snake. If everyone misses or not enough damage is done then we will get an actual combat round.

So Fistep, Ferrous, and Brathas are up. Zynazyr, since you said you were standing out of the way I will say you don't have time to throw a dagger but you could use a cantrip if you want.

You said the snakes are 5 feet long. Two people should be able to attack the same one. Plus, I had written that we should kill one at a time. So Ana or Fistep or Ferrous should be hitting the second snake.

Walia says, "We should concentrate on one at a time and make sure it is dead. Worst case scenario is if we don't kill either of them and have to fight both." as he readies his mace.

You said the snakes are 5 feet long. Two people should be able to attack the same one.

Yes, but a coup-de-grace cannot be made on the tail of the snake. You would need to aim for the head, which is the size of a fist. Also, snakes at rest do not lie in a 5' line - they coil.

Plus, I had written that we should kill one at a time.

Killing one will wake up the other one, since they are entwined and close together. So it's a question of whether you want 7 damage or 0 damage on the second one before it wakes. Your call.

Everybody who didn't make the coup-de-grace still gets a free attack this round before we roll initiative so the point will probably be moot.

Letting Fistep taking the CDG shot would have more likely been a clean kill. And nobody else agreed to do it your way of one at a time since that seemed implausible.
THAC0 17: 17 - 1d20 ⇒ 17 - (3) = 14
No good with the axe.

To be fair, no one had written anything. I wasn't sure how they came out of the basket, they were magically put into sleep. I thought I was helping Ana kill the one snake.

cdg: 2d10 + 6 ⇒ (2, 3) + 6 = 11

Fistep swings his sword down to chop the head off of the other snake from the one Ana landed a solid blow on.

Ferrous sees the snake thrashing about and tries to end the thrashing before it has a chance to strike.
THAC019: 19 - 1d20 ⇒ 19 - (20) = -1
Damage: 1d8 + 2 ⇒ (5) + 2 = 7
Natural 20 so crit confirm.
THAC019: 19 - 1d20 ⇒ 19 - (13) = 6
Damage: 1d8 + 2 ⇒ (4) + 2 = 6

woohoo! all we gotta do is paint snakes on the enemies and Ferrous is set!! :)

Ferrous sees the snake thrashing about and tries to end the thrashing before it has a chance to strike.

[dice=THAC019]19-1d20
[dice=Damage]1d8+2
Natural 20 so crit confirm.
[dice=THAC019]19-1d20
[dice=Damage]1d8+2

3:40 PM, Day 4

Ferrous decapitates the last snake with his axe.

Simple precautions must be taken to ensure that the snake venom doesn't contaminate the snake meat, but after that the snakes provide 16 half-meals worth of food.

Within the basket are 3000 silver pieces, and five gems; one worth 10 gp, one worth 50 gp, two worth 100 gp each, and one worth 500 gp.

Note that the contents of the basket are fairly heavy and weigh about 30 lbs.

So, what now?

* Return to and the damp chamber to the north?
* Return to the mold room??
* Return to the passage leading to the Gorm Brotherhood?
* Go back down to the 4th tier by the stairs?
* Go down to the 4th tier via the pit?
* Return to camp for the day?
* Something else?

Walia says, "Why don't we schlep this loot back to camp and then play it by ear?"

"Given that we are right here, we might spend a bit more time investigating the pressure plate and the damp room before making camp for the night. Might closer inspection give us a clue? Bits of dirt and debris stuck to the walls above the floor could indicate that the room sometimes floods, whereas small stalactites would indicate that a slow seep is responsible."

I agree. Ferrous, dwarves are well known for stonework, what do you say?

"...Might closer inspection give us a clue?..."

When you have searched an area, you can always search again. The catch is that each new attempt takes longer than before. So you could continue to search the damp chamber for things.

Since two of you seem to be in favor of doing that let's move ahead...

3:50 PM, Day 4

The party moves into the damp chamber and begins searching it.

6d6 ⇒ (4, 4, 1, 3, 5, 6) = 23

Ferrous realizes that concealed in the walls near the floor are small blocks of stone that can pull back into the wall, leaving holes. These blocks are evenly spaced around the room. You haven't hit them hard but when pressing them with your hands you can tell they are held solidly in place and do not budge.

Ferrous also notes that there are similar blocks in the west wall near the ceiling, though these are hard to examine as they are about 20' above the floor.

Brathas notes that the dampness of the room is most noticeable at floor level but the walls are damp all the way up the walls as far as he can reach.

So, what now?

* You have taken 10 minutes searching. You could spend another hour for another search check.
* You could try to safely trigger the pressure plate.
* Brathas could try to disarm the pressure plate.
* You could try to climb the walls to see if anything can be discovered at the ceiling.
* You could go down to the 4th tier. (by which route?)
* You could return to camp for the day.
* Something else?

It seems to me that the pressure plate would control some of these blocks possibly flooding the room. The question is what is to gain from flooding the room. Well if the water is fresh alot but if the water is not drinkable than we risk alot for very little gain.

Might as well try it... if its not fresh water, well nothing lost.

Might as well try it... if its not fresh water, well nothing lost.

If you want to try to safely trigger the plate, how do you want to go about it?

"If this pressure plate is a fountain, we are safe. If it is a trap, it must close the doors to drown its victims. So the question is how do we avoid being trapped."
There's a door between the snake room and the damp room, right?
"I have two ideas. I could try to jam the door so it can't close. Or, we could use a rope to drag a crate of stones across the pressure plate, while staying outside the room. In that case, we can also set up one Jar of the Charlatan in the room to catch inflowing water, and the other outside.
Either way, we should gather as many things that hold water as we can find before triggering this."

There's a door between the snake room and the damp room, right?

There is a door between the snake room and the damp room. It is an iron sliding door that runs along a track in the floor. It looks pretty sturdy.

Walia says, "Before we do this, let me check the water."

He then runs the back of his hand along the wall, because the inside of the hand is naturally sweatier and licks the moist water and then licks the wall itself. Gm, this should tell him if it is salty or not.

The water tastes a bit brackish and metallic, but it is definitely fresh, with no trace of salt.

Walia says, "It seems fresh, we may have to boil it first before drinking it. I suggest we hang open waterskins on the line as well to increase our water catching ability."

I like your second idea Brathas, very clever with the jars we found... He looks over at Ana and Ferrous, I have rope to tie to a stone and between the three of us we can certainly pull it across the plate. Looking back at Brathas we probably need weight at least 100lbs of weight

Walia also adds, "Is there a way we could prop the urn in the water room so it doesn't tip over. In that way we could possibly get two full urns worth of water not just one."

"Say one jar is in the room under a spout. Water flows in, then hopefully out from the other jar in the snake room, where we use it to fill waterskins.
If the jar does tip over as the water level rises, water may still be flowing into it while it floats on its side. Perhaps you are right and we can try to prop it or weight it down (from the outside) so it keeps getting water into it as long as possible.
I definitely want one jar with us, outside the room, in case we cannot reopen the door. We'll capture the water by teleportation."

Use some wood to create a holder of the basket that can have heavy objects attached to it, that way it'll help keep the jar from floating.

For the record, if you are looking for materials on-hand, there is not a lot of stuff here. There are rags (what is left of curtains) in the ruined chapel where the lizard was. There is a bit of rubble in the ruined chapel adjacent to the pit room, where you fought the bats.

If you want wood there are the phony crates attacked to the wall above the pit, though they are tricky to get to. There are also the old crates and bales of cloth adjacent to the party's camp. In either case the wood is pretty old and relatively flimsy. There is also the furniture in the Gormites' chamber and in Fineos' room, and on various other rooms on the second tier.

One you have a definite plan spell it out for me.

Although it's an unreasonable 3:30 am on New Year's Day in my usual time zone, it's past breakfast where I am now. Yay for time travel!
"If we have no useful crates, we could fill the snake basket with sand packed around the urn. And we could drag a goblin corpse across the pressure plate."