We begin our journey in a small cave SW of the Anderson Farmstead which is only one hex away from our destination, an easy journey by most metrics. Turns out it’s harder than we thought! A Gale Weaver sees us negotiating with our map and takes that rather personally. Render begins battle by rushihg out and landing a mighty two handed blow upon the wind elemental. Gale Force Pigeon retorts with some sort of ranged wind attack on Kaelan that is quickly self healed away. Gore, being slow to react, then dashes to Render’s side with his signature opener -Bless combined with a Daunting Roar to scare away the enemies. The Fart Fowl is ah-scarded. The party continues to assault the bird, ending combat with a devastating Fire Bolt from Kaelen. As the adrenalin of combat fades Kaelen and Gore share a look as Render shares his pee related philosophy.
“You see, Gore’s abilities are used to tell the ENEMIES to piss OFF, where as my abilities tell the PARTY to piss ON. You get it? Because… you know… combat and stuff???”
“We love you for who you are, Render”
We finally make our way to the tomb where Gore perceives several different sets of footprints. Most notable among these are large sets of Ogre footprints. We enter the cave to find that the interior is much disrepair. All of the furniture in this entry room is broken and strewn about. There are double doors directly in front of us and a “secret” door that has been damaged and cracked open to our left. Kaelen investigates the secret room and returns with a pouch containing 46 g and news of a trap that has been spent before our arrival.
We venture onward to the double doors where a quick peek through reveals some shambling zombies milling about inside. There is a small amount of prep outside of the double doors which includes Kaelan placing a small amythist figure on Gore’s shoulder. It’s life like movements support Render and Gore’s theory regarding Kaelan’s mage status, despite his insistence that he’s an “alchemist” -whatever that is.
We burst through the doors and Kaelan begins this fight by obliterating a zombie with an alcohol fueled fire bolt. The Ghoul lands a blow on Gore that would be fatal to any normal person, luckily his adamantine armor protects him from such a fate. Thanks to Render’s temporary hp that he hands out, the front line is super successful in protecting their squishy back line. The ghoul, seeing that this fighter/paladin combo is taking no damage, sends their tongue lashing out to strike Kaelan and deals a brutal amount of damage. Gore finishes off the ghoul with a smite and Kaelen rounds out combat by murderizing the final zombie. Searching this room nets us another 131 gold.
Kaelan begins to ritually cast detect magic and rolls his eyes when his insistence that the process is alchemical falls on deaf ears. The party continues to explore the dungeon. Gore does a tactical roll into a room containing 4 coffins, 4 warrior statues with their palms held upwards, and a door made of frosted glass on the far wall. The party then back tracks through the the dungeon, there are obviously some muh-juffins to be found.
Gore, bolstered by the success of his last tactical roll, repeats the maneuver again… right into a trap! He narrowly dodges a large pillar that slams down from the ceiling. Close one! The party notices cards that are on the floor over tiles that end up being the safe choice to walk on. At the end of the hall is a thoroughly mushed grave robber. On his person we find: what is left of his deck of cards, +1 sword (Piercer), a book with clues written in the margins, a Bullseye Lantern, and a bag of sand. A small discussion determines that Gore will get Piercer. In exchange he gives his lucky dagger to Render.
Confident that we’ve gathered all of the McMuffins, we head back to the puzzle room. A joint effort solves the puzzle and opens the frosted glass door which leads to a treasure room!
The final room of the dungeon has us slaying a wight along with a medley of specters. This battle is won in part due to Render’s continued distribution of temp hp, but also due to Kaelan healing us (magic) with his superior intellect (also magic). We all high five and proceed to loot the room! Of note we find a trio of statues depicting the big three greek gods (Spooky, Salty, and Shocky). The remainder of the adventure consists of getting briefly lost, and then safely home! The mystery still remains though… Who exactly made all those footprints and where are they now? The truth is out there…
