Here's the recap email I just sent for tonight's session:
Our cast:
Mongo the Fighter, and his henchmen Melzgar the Elf, Rogar the Elf, and Roger the Fighter
Gutboy Barrelhouse the Cleric, his henchmen Slezgar the Elf and Serlo the Elf, and his dogs Rufus and Ruby
Netal the Elf, and his dog Moe
As the adventure reconvened, P.W. the Halfling ran screaming into the dark, his time in the pit apparently having broken his nerve. Unconcerned, the party continued north, coming across a tunnel filled with silk. A single 4' long stony-looking caterpillar crawled towards the party, but was peppered with arrows before it got in biting range. Searching the silk, the party discovered triangular nooks behind the silk webbing, and each had a cocoon, with gold coins woven into it. The slashed the cocoons apart to retrieve the gold, killing the chrysalis in each one.
After looting the cocoons, the party backtracked and explored a side corridor. This corridor ended in an archway, with a dim light coming from the room inside. Mongo peeked in, and saw 10 giant moths fluttering around an 8' tall black post, with a glowing globe atop it. A murderous frenzy overcame the party, and they charged in, seeking the death of these insolent moths. A few arrow shots and a sleep spell later, and the moths lay dead in sticky buggy heap. Each party member took a turn trying to wrench the globe off the top of the black post, but they did not have the strength. There was some debate about smashing it, but in the end, everyone decided to leave the globe alone and explore other parts of the dungeon.
Backtracking a bit more, the party went down another side corridor. At the end of this corridor was a triangular-shaped room, completely empty. Netal went into the room, carefully searching, and found a pressure plate on the floor in the middle of the room. Looking around some more, he saw cracks in the mortar on the south wall, roughly the same size as a door, and two loose stones in the wall on either side of the door-sized area. The rest of the party entered the room, and began searching the ceiling, looking for anything ominous. Both Roger and Rogar saw more cracks in the ceiling, in a square shape, above the pressure plate.
Most of the party went to the entrance to the room, while Mongo prodded the pressure plate with a 10' pole. A trapdoor in the ceiling swung down, releasing five 2' wide translucent bubbles. The bubbles floated towards Mongo, flicking tendrils at him, but they were unable to penetrate his armor.
Mongo fled, while the rest of the party shot arrows at the bubbles, popping two, while Netal attempted to sleep the bubbles. The sleep spell had no effect, and the bubbles once again lashed out with tendrils, but missed. Several more arrows and sword blows eliminated the bubbly threat, and aside from a bubble's goo falling on top of Roger, the party was unwounded.
Netal pushed in on both loose blocks simultaneously, and the secret door opened. Following the corridor beyond, the party came into a strange room, with walls painted in pastoral scenes of frolicking deer, chipmunks, squirrels, and other woodland creatures. Artificial bushes made of dowels with silk leaves were scattered around the room, and in the center were four wooden statues. Netal moved up to investigate, and found the statues were of 3' tall men, sitting cross-legged, with three eyes and pointy hats. At the top of each pointy hat was a gleaming sapphire.
Mongo was deeply suspicious, and pointed his sword at one of the statues' throat while Netal reached for the sapphire. As soon as Netal touched the statue, it sprang up to attack, and Mongo instantly stabbed it with his sword. The wooden statue just splintered a bit and started swinging at Netal, and the other three began to stir.
The fight lasted a few rounds, with one of the statues landing a few hits on Rufus the dog, but the party handily reduced them to splinters. Gathering up the sapphires, the party realized they had enough money to pay for the service to Nisus at the Grand Temple.
The party left the dungeon, talking briefly to Bob the Scientist on the way out about the possibility of escorting him to some of the scientific secrets they had uncovered, but they needed to get back to Denethix. So back to Chelmsfordshire they went, resting for a day so that Gutboy could heal the dogs. The henchmen spent the time on a drunken bender, and Roger the Fighter informed Mongo that he was quitting. "Look, I'm sick of you calling me George, and I know these elves think you're incredibly eloquent, but really, I'm starting to suspect that you're not that bright. I'm going to Denethix to get some women." With that, Roger headed off.
The next day, the party headed towards Denethix. They paid the remainder of the fee to the Grand Temple for the service to Nisus, and Mongo was left in a spending mood. They wandered the markets of the Bazaar Incomparable, looking for "magic potions" to make them feel better. Mongo found a snake oil salesman, but doubted that the Yellow-Bellied Adder Oil would really work. The salesman suggested something a bit stronger.
Salesman: "Perhaps the powdered dust of the cactus of the southern desert? A little of that and you'll be feeling quite good!"
Mongo: "Mongo want something that kill! You have something that kill?"
"You take enough of the cactus dust, it'll kill you!"
"Not what Mongo mean."
They accosted the gun salesman they had bargained with a few weeks earlier, but found the prices way out of reach, even for a breech-loading rifle. Mongo had enough cash for a palm-sized pistol, but wouldn't have enough money for the bullets, which were quite pricey. The arms dealer explained that each bullet had to be hand cast, as the barrels were all different diameters, and the rifling different on each one.
Eventually, Mongo decided on leasing an apartment. He put down first, last, and security deposit on a one-bedroom apartment on the Street of Worthy Servitude. With his new home in the city, his self-confidence increased greatly.
The party stayed in the apartment for a week, waiting for the day of the festival. It arrived, and they went down to the Grand Temple. The front rows of the temple held the rich, with the poor in the back and up in the balconies. The festival opened with a two-hour service to Blibdoolpoolp, the naked high priestess wearing her ceremonial lobster head. Livestock were slaughtered, and a three-foot-long lobster was gutted and tossed onto the sacrifical fires. Various other deities were introduced, and services held for them, with the accompanying reading of entrails. No gods appeared in the great God's Eye, however.
Eventually the time for Nisus arrived, and Gutboy approached the altar. He began extolling the virtues of Nisus, as the great fertilizer of the fields and so forth, and the God's Eye glimmered with color. It filled with images of crawling insects, and Nisus' voiced boomed out: "BEHOLD MY CHAMPIONS! STAND, CHAMPIONS! BEHOLD GUTBOY! BEHOLD NETAL! BEHOLD MONGO!" The God's Eye then faded out, and Gutboy started giving directions to the booth of Nisus. As he did so, the priestess of Blibdoolpoolp walked up and shooed him away from the pulpit.
The party went to Nisus's booth, and waited to see if any potential worshippers would show up. One middle-class man did show up, and asked a few questions about the goddess. Gutboy responded fervently, suggesting that the man could become a priest of Nisus, because somebody had to watch the temple while he was away. The man nodded politely, explained that he already had a job, gave Gutboy a gold piece, and took off.
The party then went to the Temple of Science to negotiate rates with Bob. The attendant in the vestibule seemed a bit worried, since Bob hadn't actually been heard from in 10 days, and wondered if the Gutboy had seen him. When Gutboy said he had, and would go looking for him for a fee, the attendant went to get Head Scientist Gregory. Gregory came out, standing on his stilts and wearing his ceremonial labcoat. Some brief and mildly acrimonious negotiations ensued, and Gregory agreed to pay 500 gp for determining the fate of and possibly rescuing Bob and the other Scientists.
So, on Wed March 9th: "What About Bob", the adventure. See you there.
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