Red - Human Ranger
Tharum - Elf Thief/Magic-User
Firban Brighthand - Halfling Thief
Radovan - Human Cleric (of Odin?)
Khazgar Stonehand - Dwarf Fighter
Boris - Dwarf Fighter/Thief
and the new character:
Seed - Human Fighter
The group started in town, looking for some things to spend their loot on from last session. Each of the original party members bought a Potion of Healing. Tharum to Mighty Minions and picked up a henchman, a female human magic-user, named Moira. She agreed to join the delve for a 10% share and 1 spell of her choice from Tharum's spellbook. (She chose Web at the end of the adventure.)
The party listened to several rumors, the most notable were: "magic no longer works in the Citadel," and "the hydra prefers elf flesh to dwarf flesh." (Both were heard by Tharum.)
The party decided to take the Forge Road northwards to the Citadel. Along the way, they saw a gray bag sitting in the middle of the road. Checking it on all sides for traps, Firban decided to open it. And was bitten to 0 hit points! A bag of teeth had found its way to a major road, and got a victim! Boris stepped up as his little friend fell, and shredded the bag. 8 gp were found. Radovan healed Firban and they were back on the road.
Soon they were approaching the Citadel from the south. It was supposed to be a quick stop, to make sure that magic worked. Well, that was not the case. They approached the entry under the castle wall, Seeing doors in both west and east sides of the entryway, they investigate.
The door on the left is locked, but not trapped. They spend some time checking it out thoroughly, going so far as unlocking the door. Firban accomplished this task, and watched it re-lock itself immediately. A crowbar was tried, to no avail.
Meanwhile, the owlbear noticed them trying to get into the door. Fortunately, they had a ranger in the party, and were not surprised. A combat ensued. The owlbear lasted 2 rounds, only landing one hit on Tharum. (Missed bear-hug damage by 1. 😒)
As the party is taking pieces of the owlbear (head, steaks, feathers are things I remember for sure,) a group of three apes make their presence known. They all stood a head taller than the humans, and carried 7' long stone spears (all stone, including the shaft.) Moira had the very rare spell "Comprehend Languages" memorized (a fortunate coincidence and a DM Fiat, all in one!)
A round of hilarity ensued as Khazgar, Seed and Moira can understand the apes, but cannot respond. They attempt several gestures, but the apes could not understand. Eventually, the groups separate with no hostilities.
The party resumes their door messing. This time, they do some checking, and open the east door. Khazgar steps inside, and gets attacked by a ghoul! He (for the second session in a row) is paralyzed! The party otherwise makes quick work of them, thanks to Radavan rolling 20 on 2d10! Further into the room is a desk. Overall, the treasure in the room is 1 silver key, 2 gems, and a 1000 gp necklace.
They take the silver key and try it in the west wall door. It works! Inside is a room with 8 black ants. They shut the door, leaving the ants to their machinations
They move through a double door at the far end of the ghoul room, and enter a strange almost z shaped room. A door to the left, and a few more doors in the further compartment were noticed. In the further compartment, 8 dwarven skeletons could be seen. As they approach, they see a tripwire separating the skeletons from the party. Seed throws a few rocks at the skeletons, but nothing seems to happen.
As they are figuring out what to do, they listen at the near door, and hear bones moving around. They decide to send Radovan and Boris into the room near the skeletons. The skeletons turn their heads to look at Radovan.
"Why do you disturb our rest?"
"We seek to return the dwarves to their homes."
"The taint of this mountain will never be washed away. That is a fool's errand."
A few more words were exchanged, but that's the most important bits.
They decide to check the door nearest where they entered instead of pushing through the dwarf skeletons. Again, not trapped or locked. Seed opens the door, and gets blasted by a ballista, pinning him and Boris to the wall.
Combat ensues with the skeleton with an axe. The skeleton casts a spell on the next round! Mirror Image and movement. The party shoots a few arrows and take a couple of swings. The skeleton wades into combat, attacking 3 different party members! The party attacks again. Seed breaks loose and runs toward the exit. The skeleton wins initiative, and casts Sleep! This leaves Seed (at 1 hp after the ballista, Khazgar (who moved to load the ballista) and Tharum as the only members standing.
Now, here's a note about Seed's player. He is my eight-year-old son, Hanson. He was forced to make a choice, and I presented it like this: "You have 2 choices, be the survivor, or the hero. You can get out the door, and live. But, all of the treasures you have gotten so far (except the silver key) are on the other characters." He chose to stay and fight.
Khazigar awakens Radovan and Moira with his next actions (one in movement, the other in melee.) Tharum awakens Red. Meanwhile, the skeleton misses Seed. (Hero indeed!)
The party finally drops the skeletal fighter-mage. At this point it was 9:00, so we called it a night. They took the ballista (500 gp) and the fighter-mage's axe (an axe of spell-storing named Heart-Killer, or Heart-Slayer or something similar. The dwarven runes on the axe are ancient and impossible to translate exactly.)
A few DM's notes:
I felt bad for Tharum's player tonight. He chose Sleep as his spell, and never had the chance to cast it. He expected either a) to hit the goblins, or b) to go back to the Lords' District. Unfortunately, they ended up in the undead section of the citadel.
The owlbear (and the skeletal fighter-mage) rolled very poorly. There should have been more blood. But, that's why we roll the dice.
Everyone seems to be having a blast with the gritty style of S&W. They have quickly gotten used to the round robin style combat and the lethality of combat.
We are approaching level 2 for at least Firban. The others have more XP to go, but I would bet most of the single class characters hit 2 next week.
The bag of teeth.
The ghoul room. Post ghouls. The rats on the left represented ants.
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