L1: Secret of Bone Hill

Game Master GM_MG

"If diseased rats have taken up residence, it pays to be cautious. Cover your nose and mouth as best you can," Silvio suggests, pulling his scarf up over his face.

He takes a look around for droppings or other indicators.

investigation 25: 1d100 ⇒ 30

Silvio does spot a few tracks in the ash and dust here and there—It looks more like a rat came in through the section of collapsed wall, nosed around, and left.

The tracks lead around the corner and into the section of the building you haven't explored yet.

"Lead on!" Silvio encourages Damian and Hodd, following close behind.

The other section of the guard house appears to have been a small prison. A sectioned off cell on the north side of the room has had its door battered down. There doesnt' appear to be any smoke or fire damage in this area.

A partially open door leads to another area to the south.

I'd like to access what it would take to repair this place and I say I wonder if it's worth fixing?

You'd need to consult with an engineer, but likely it could be done. As its a guardhouse, the land likely belongs to the Baron, however, and would need to be purchased from him.

Continuing to lead the way as they explore, axes at the ready

investigation 23: 1d100 ⇒ 29
tracking 14: 1d20 ⇒ 3

investigation 45: 1d100 ⇒ 80

"Unless they've built a similar guardhouse elsewhere in town, I imagine that restoring this would be very beneficial to the town. It is hard to control criminals without a jail cell to house them. Speaking of which, this looks like a jailbreak. I suspect there is more going on than just a rat infestation after a random fire."

The room to the south appears to have acted as a bedroom, possibly for an officer or guard for the small prison.

Although the fire doesn't appear to have gotten this far, the room is in poor shape. A wooden bedframe and a rotting mattress, a threadbare and moldering carpet, and a simple wooden table and chairs, and a four-drawer chest are all that remains here. There doesn't appear to be anything of value here—likely all carted away when the building was abandoned.

Damian notices something odd under the carpet, and finds a section of it can be pulled back, revealing a hidden trapdoor cleverly placed flush with the stones. Even standing on this might not tip someone of—Damian only spotted it due to the poor condition of the carpet.

"Trapdoors galore! Let's hope this one doesn't lead to the underdark as well."

I will keep watch up here as I doubt I will fit

It'll be a tight squeeze, but Hodd will fit.

"Looks just big enough. Let's explore!" Silvio says excitedly taking the lead and being the first to open the trapdoor and peer below.

As Silvio lifts the door, a needle pokes out into his skin. 1d1 ⇒ 1 damage.

Beneath the trapdoor, a ladder leads down into darkness. A small area around the ladder can be seen, revealing only a grey stone tile floor and rough, cavernous stone walls.

See slide 9.

"Ow. Hmm, let's hope that wasn't poisoned." he says, sucking on his finger.

Can I make a healing and/or herbalism check to see if the needle was poisoned?

"Maybe I should let you go first, Damian."

Yes.

healing 16: 1d20 ⇒ 13

There is a slight residue on the needle, but its very old. Whatever sort of poison it was, it seems to have lost its effectiveness.

Chuckling to himself at Silvio's exuberance, Damian looks down the ladder before leaving the way into the darkness

Damian descends down the ladder.

With his elven infravision, Damian sees a strange room. The walls here are rough stone, looking very much like a natural cave. The effect is ruined, however, by the tiled stone floor, and a door built into the cave wall to the east. For simplicities sake, all directions will be map-based and will not match up with magnetic north.

There appears to be some paint on the tiles, but the design is too difficult to work out in infravision. There's furniture here, although its definitely seen better days, and are likely rotten and water-damaged beyond use at this point.

The room contains a large hexagonal table with six benches, a hexagonal bed, and an ironbound chest.

To the far southern end of the room Damian sees a horrific sight—two ancient human skeletons, upright and shambling toward him, wielding badly rusted short swords. Behind it is an even more terrible creature, what appears to be a human, but with green putrefying flesh and a terrible, twisted visage. The skin around its jaws is missing, revealing blackened, rotting muscle and sharp teeth. Slavering and open-mouthed, it stalks forward as well.

2. Skeleton (blue)
3. Walrus
4. Silvio
6. Damian
7. Skeleton (Red)
8. Hodd
8. Black (?)

Reminder, since it may matter in this fight: each square is 10', and you can climb down the ladder at 1/3 normal speed. All of you have a base speed of 120', so Climbing down the 20' ladder will take 40' of your movement. Damian has already climbed down, and doesn't need to worry about that.

The skeleton stumbles jerkily but with surprising speed toward Damian.

Attack: 1d20 ⇒ 7 Miss!

It offers a clumsy swing at Damian, who easily dodges it.

Walrus, Silvio, and Damian are up!

From the hole I shoot at it with my crossbow

crossbow: 1d20 ⇒ 3

"Ugh, undead are an afront to the natural cycle." Silvio says to himself with a shake of his head.

He starts to take a step down the ladder, then hesitates.

What are you doing? You're a lover not a fighter. he tells himself as he leans over the hole in the floor, clears his throat, and calls down to his ally, "You've got this, my friend! Show them your war-face!"

I will incite Damian into a berserker rage (+2 to attack and damage rolls).

Pulling his axes from his belt and back, Damian tries to make room for the others

main hand thac0 12: 1d20 ⇒ 10
damage(slashing): 1d8 + 3 + 2 ⇒ (5) + 3 + 2 = 10

off hand thac0 12: 1d20 ⇒ 2
damage (slashing): 1d6 + 3 + 2 ⇒ (6) + 3 + 2 = 11

2. Skeleton (blue)
3. Walrus
4. Silvio
6. Damian (-2)
7. Skeleton (Red)
8. Hodd
8. Black (?)

I think your THAC0 should just be 15 not 12. 18 base, +1 for strength adjustment, +2 for berserker rage.

Walrus misses the difficult shot, and Silvio buffs Damian.

Damian smashes the first skeleton, and it falls to the floor in a rain of bones.

The other skeleton shambles forward, stabbing at Damian.

Attack: 1d20 ⇒ 20
Damage: 1d4 ⇒ 1

It manages a slash across his chest, but its a fairly minor wound.

Hodd is up!

Hodd will climb down the ladder and move towards the closest threat, drawing his massive blade and attempting to silence this abomination to life. (I am not entirely sure where we drop in at)

Attack: 1d20 ⇒ 3 Thac0 19

Attack: 2d10 + 1 ⇒ (8, 8) + 1 = 17

3. Walrus
4. Silvio
6. Damian (-4, paralyzed 5 rounds)
7. Skeleton (Red)
8. Hodd
8. Black (?)

Hodd takes a swing at the skeleton, but misses.

The other creature runs to Damian.

Attack, bite: 1d20 ⇒ 12
Attack, claw: 1d20 ⇒ 16
Attack, claw: 1d20 ⇒ 11

Slashing damage: 1d3 ⇒ 1

Save vs. paralysis: 1d20 ⇒ 6

1d6 + 2 ⇒ (3) + 2 = 5

Damian is paralyzed by the creature's touch!

Silvio and Walrus are up!

"Well that's not good."

"Alright! I'm coming!" Silvio announces as he climbs down the ladder and takes up residence in a small alcove behind Damian. He quickly pulls out his kit and begins treating Damian's wounds.

healing 16: 1d20 ⇒ 17

...and seems to fumble nervously with the bandages.

I climb down the ladder and fire another crossbow bolt

Crossbow: 1d20 ⇒ 16

I fire at red btw

3. Walrus
4. Silvio
6. Damian (-5, paralyzed 5 rounds)
7. Skeleton (Red) (-2)
8. Hodd
8. Black (?)

Don't forget to roll damage.

1d4 ⇒ 4

Walrus's quarrel hits, but the piercing quarrel does only minor damage to the skeleton.

Red swings at Damian.

1d4 ⇒ 1

Dealing minor damage to the paralyzed Damian.

Hodd is up!

You shall be destroyed foul beast, evil shall not triumph on this day!

Attack: 1d20 ⇒ 20 Thac0 19

Attack: 2d10 + 1 ⇒ (10, 10) + 1 = 21

Second attack directed at the skeleton if necessary, other wise it will be directed at the other foul, rotting creature.

Attack: 1d20 ⇒ 7 Thac0 19

Attack: 2d10 + 1 ⇒ (2, 4) + 1 = 7

3. Walrus
4. Silvio
6. Damian (-5, paralyzed 4 rounds)
7. Skeleton (Red) (-2)
8. Hodd

The creature, looking hungrily at the paralyzed Damian, scarcely registers Hodd as he swings the huge blade, neatly bisecting the undead creature, which sprays a fountain of rotting gore across the room.

His follow-up swing misses the skeleton.

Silvio and Walrus are up!

"Whoa. That was quite the swing."

Seeing the new injury, Silvio takes another stab at treating Damian's wounds.

healing 16: 1d20 ⇒ 4
heals: 1d4 ⇒ 2

I drop the crossbow and take out my quarterstaff to swing.

Quarterstaff: 1d20 ⇒ 8 damage: 1d6 ⇒ 4

3. Walrus
4. Silvio
6. Damian (-3, paralyzed 4 rounds)
7. Skeleton (Red) (-2)
8. Hodd

One skeleton isn't much of a threat, so we can call it here. Out of combat.

Shortly after, Damian's paralysis wears off.

77 XP! Note that I created an XP tracking spreadsheet, as noted in the discussion thread.

"Well then! It's certainly good that we looked into this. This is clearly more than just a rat infestation!"

Can I attempt a religion check as a pseudo monster knowledge check? I am curious if I can tell if these undead were created purposely or if they are the result of more of a curse or other "natural" origin for undead.
Also I would like to check out that chest, though this time I am going to look it over for traps first.

religion 18: 1d20 ⇒ 20

wow rolling a crit on a NWP check is quite the FU from the dice roller.

investigation 25%: 1d100 ⇒ 25

Oh yeah before I forget I want to check to make sure that Damian's wounds aren't infected with any disease.

healing 16: 1d20 ⇒ 16

Religion doesn't cover that, but I'm not opposed to using it that way for this adventure. I'm going to have to give some thought on how to handle these sorts of things before I run the follow up.

I'm also going to be a bit more liberal on finding traps that strictly requiring the Find/Remove Traps rogue skill. Again, that may not extend to any follow ups, as not taking a rogue or bard has consequences.

Damian doesn't seem to be diseased, but Silvio isn't exactly sure what manner of creature that was.

Silvio notices a trap on the chest, which can by bypassed by depressing a button on the top. Opening the chest, he sees it would have caused an unstoppered potion on the lid to spill its contents into the box—what effect that would have, he isn't sure.

There are many sets of rotten clothes within the chest. A second potion bottle lay at the bottom, along with a wooden box and a belt with a sheathed dagger and an ornate buckle.

While searching, Didy also notices a section of the wall to the south looks a bit odd. On further investigation, a section of wall has a cunningly concealed switch, likely opening a secret door.

Much appreciated. It is hard to unlearn some of the advancements since 2e. And wow it really seems like a Rogue would have plenty to do in this adventure! I suppose I do have 8 potential henchmen with my high Charsima, maybe we should embrace the old ways and find ourselves a rogue NPC.

"Clever!" Silvio comments on the trap. "I imagine that this potion is an acid or somesuch, to ruin these goodies. Speaking of, Wally, did you prepare some magic detection today? I suspect these fancy items may be magical. Eventually one of us is going to have to be brave and test one out..."

As he catches sight of the secret opening, he gets completely sidetracked and giggles excitedly, "Ooo! This rabbit hole gets deeper and deeper!"

I have detect magic as one of my cantrips Silvio

Hodd casts detect magic.

"Huzzah! My apologies, bigguy. After you split that poor ghoul in two I think I forgot that you are a man of many talents."

Regaining the ability to move, Damian thanks Silvio for his help and helps with the search of the room

investigation 23: 1d100 ⇒ 95

Both potions appear to be magical, as does something within the wooden box you found in the trunk.

Damian spots six rusted daggers in sheaths nailed to the underside of the table here, one in each position.

The furniture here is so rotten as to be useless. Still, it was probably quite a nice little sanctum at one time.

What would you like to do?

Well if no one else is gonna, I am gonna open that wooden box! I will attempt to check it for trap again, although I hope that no one is so paranoid as to trap the door, the chest, and the box within it.

investigation 25: 1d100 ⇒ 81

After opening up the box he takes notice of Damian's discovery. "I am seeing a lot of symbolism for six with that table and those daggers. Perhaps a cult? Or secret cabal?" he says with excitement in his voice.

religion 18 in case it is a religious thing: 1d20 ⇒ 20

"So, what say you all? Secret door or obvious one first? I'd vote we explore that which we weren't meant to see first."

Whichever we choose I will check that doorway for more traps yet.

investigation 25: 1d100 ⇒ 7

Lol, two nat 20s on proficiency checks. Ouch.

Silvio isn't sure, but its possible.

He doesn't see any traps on either the box or the doorways. Inside the box is a medallion, bearing a symbol of a hand holding a broken coin.

religion 18: 1d20 ⇒ 20

Incredible. I'm going to give it to you anyway.

The magic medallion is an unholy symbol of Kurell, a minor Oerdian god of jealosy, revenge, and thievery.