Weird Writer sadly couldn't make it due to personal issues, so our recap is provided by Cellar:
First thing we tried was picking an iron lock, with the first move taken. Lykourgas taps it, stiffening it, then twists, jamming it. Nuts.
We check out some rooms Lykourgas and Eofor skipped on our initial escape from baboonland, picking up some mundane treasure from a dormitory wing and the mechanical raven we passed over last time.
Another room has 10 dead baboons, a fearsome skeletonized warrior guarding a desiccated elf-corpse on a bed: The latter two figures are dripping in magic loot. We tentatively approach, but the figures moan, and Eofor and Authur's killing sense tells us the warrior had 5HD, in life. There are also some spyholes on the other side of the bed, so we scout in that direction for them.
Instead of the other side of the spyholes, we find a fucked up torture room: Four large, albino baboons (Havoc Freudian slipped they were female) and two goblins are poking a half-dead guy suspended from the ceiling. Also hanging on the walls are two dead goblins (sex undetermined) and two dead goats. Somehow, they manage not to notice us, and we back out; Eofor jams the door shut behind with a large, expensive-looking chair.
There's something making noise in the Ruby Throne room, so we dip, and investigate the pulsating green light by the compass room again. The lever's busted, so we lift and jam the portcullis just long enough to scoop up an evil-seeming box and free some ghouls, from whom we flee desperately, Eofor sustaining a hit in the process.
At this point, a mechanical dragonfly with gems for eyes spots us, and speaks with the voice of a shitty blown-out PA system. "What is that box there, where did you get it?" The dragonfly explains it is a construct of Kerbog Khan, "one of the greatest magicians in Arden Vul," and offers us 40,000gp for it, if we transport it to the Forum of Set on the fourth level. "Just be very careful! I recommend not going beyond any portcullises holding that," it says.
I don't have a great many thoughts this time around, as it was mostly a session of closing out gaps and finding dead-ends on the map, negotiating peril, and making up plans that didn't end up concretised.
We found out that the damn map is offset by a little bit, and I cannot for the life of me figure out why. The corridors are the same size as they should be, but two rooms aren't aligning somehow. I was thinking about reviewing the map but I don't think I will, it'll make things slightly confusing but that kind of inconsistency comes with the territory.
I'm excited though, as the recap shows, they've started interacting with the more serious factions of Arden Vul, and they're on their way to the Forum of Set, which is a fascinating location to me. If they get there they're looking at a Serious boost in power, but they're also carrying a box that calls every single undead within an area towards them, so it'll be a stressful next session. Hopefully WW can attend too, both so that we can have a full party but also because she deserves a break.
