Well, tonight's game was a treat. Picking up where they left off last time, the two surviving members of the party looted the body of Helia the Fan-Lady and tipped her into the water. Continuing to explore into the next cavern, they found a person in long robes lying on the floor. Being Dwarves they're not too good with humans but they definitely couldn't see a beard. So they don't know whether it's a man or a girlman. The person in the robes isn't giving much away, as they have amnesia from a bump on the head.
Exploring a little further, they noticed a strange glow... which turned out to be three fire-beetles. A fight ensued - the wizardy-type remembered s/he knew some words for whoosh, and sure enough, there was some whoosh which resulted in the rapid exit of one of the beetles. Heartened by this the Dwarves piled in to attack the other two - one of which seemed very easy to kill and the other very hard. Once more, one of the PCs keeled over down to 0hp. Luckily there was plenty of time to dispatch the remaining beetle and perform first aid, using bandages torn from girlman's robes. Then time to prop him up and leave him to recover... it's totally safe to leave an unconscious party-member in a room of carrion, isn't it?
Bjorn - the surviving Dwarf - did remember that part of the point of what they were doing was harvesting interesting bits for the members of the Sages' Guild back at the North Bridge Tavern. So they collected the glowing sacs or bladders or whatever fire beetles have and off they went, leaving poor Bromeen all alone and unconscious.
It wasn't long before they were back though. Just a little further, and they came to crossroads, where there was a door to they left - this part of the complex looks properly built in contrast to the natural caverns they were exploring before. They opened the door, Bjorn going first, and found a small swarm of Giant Centipedes. They had a certain problem killing these little blighters - in fact, they only got one of them and both Bjorn and Wizard Mac Girlmanperson were bitten. Cue a slow vomitting exit from the room. Luckily, the centipedes didn't follow.
They decided to crawl back to Bromeen. So, one dead, two incapacitated by vomitting.
Luckily, Bromeen managed to pull through, and his condition was upgraded from 'dead' to 'healed'. Basically, this works like this: if first aid is applied rapidly (I give CON x 10 seconds or bleed to death) then make a CON roll: if that's successful, count that as '1hp' by permanently removing a point of CON. Healing can then take place as normal. Bromeen made his roll, and would therefore get the chance to heal overnight.
I did a couple of wandering monster rolls: some geckos wandered by, late at night, but the reaction matrix told me they were not going to attack. Lucky, with all the party members incapacitaed!
In the evening of day 2, Bromeen had sufficiently recovered to watch over and attempt to help his two companions.Good job too - a green slime appeared and slowly menaced them. Bjorn and Wizard crawled away slowly - but still faster than the slime. Bromeen threw a dead rabbit at it, then attacked it with a sword. He'd never seen a green slime before, he wasn't to know. Now he doesn't have a sword.
What happened next was that he decided to go and stand in the water (parts of the caverns are flooded) and lure the slime in. He did, then nipped (ie slowly waded) to the other side of the cavern and out again. Slimes aren't noted for their clever so I figured it just wandered off. Maybe it drowned. I don't know. It's served its purpose. Melting Bromeen's sword means that when the Town Guard want him to hand it back - they have the paperwork for his sword due to the town byelaws - he won't be able to. Oh dear oh dear, he hasn't sold it illegally has he? That would be very unfortunate... perhaps the gentleman would accompany these nice Watchmen to the Keep...
So, still vomitting and staggering, the remaining party members made their way back out. They emerged, about 36 hours after first venturing down there, having lost a party member, gained another, nearly lost another, killed three robber flies and three fire beetles and one giant centipede.
Bromeen, with his CHA of 7, went off to find 'an apoctherie'. Is there one in town? Of course. Town Hall Square. But as it was dawn the place was shut. Luckily Master Masym Hewe (that list of names I printed out is coming in handy, so far it's named about 10 townsfolk in 2 seconds) was prepared to come and experiment on the two sick PCs ... in exchange for 40GP, which is most of what they have. So after some bluffness, some messing about and some harrumphing, Masym Hewe, Apothecary-about-town gathered his potions and powders and followed Bromeen across the North Bridge to where Bjorn and Wizard were sitting by the warehouse throwing up. After a few minutes experimenting he hit on the right dosage and lo and behold, they stopped the explosive vomit. I did think of rolling for side effects, but that would probably have been a bit mean. After all, one doesn't really start playing an RPG with the expectation that they have to role-play being incapacitated for days...
So there they are - out of the dungeon, maybe 1/3 explored; no-one permanently died today, though it was close; and they've got some stuff that the Sages might be interested in after all...
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