Doom of the Savage Kings, Chapter 6

On By MagicJMSIn Dungeon Crawl Classics, Tabletop Roleplaying

For the first time, we’re starting with a game block of text! Last chapter, the party was in the tomb of Ulfheonar, being stalked by a couple of creepy figures on the ceiling. These, as our adventurers will soon discover, are “tomb ghouls,” and they are potentially nasty business. There are three total ghouls trapped and skulking about the tomb, and our large (and not particularly stealthy) group has caught the attraction of two of them.

As I’ve said, there is no surprise roll in DCC. Since the party did not search the room where the ghouls originated, they have no idea that they are being stalked from above. As a result, each ghoul will have the opportunity to attack before we roll initiative. They are not intelligent creatures, nor are they stupid; as predators, the ghouls see this hallway as a chokepoint to kill these intruders to their home, starting with the stragglers in the back.

I’ve established the marching order of the party. The rearmost villager is Avel Wayton, our halfling moneylender. In front of her are Omulf the urchin and Maly the armorer’s apprentice. None of these three have done anything of note yet to even be called by name in the narrative.  

The first ghoul, who we’ll call Ilham (because that was his name before becoming a ghoul, something the party will never know), drops to the floor and slashes at Avel with its claws. It rolls a [5+1] 6 and misses her 11 AC. The other ghoul, formerly Stein, swipes from above and rolls a [2+1] 3. Haffoot is not the only lucky halfling, it seems!

Now we go into combat. I’ll save describing the many actions from retainers unless they do something interesting. For the most part, they are going to try and get away from the ghouls and let our adventurers do the fighting.

Erin, Acolyte of Shul, is the first of the PCs to act. She charges forward and attempts our first Turn Undead roll of my fledgling DCC journey. Turning the ghouls requires a spell check from Erin, which is d20 -1 from her Personality +1 for her level, which ends up being just a straight d20 roll. She rolls an 11, which is a failure. Not only does she fail to Turn Undead, her chance of gaining Shul’s disapproval increases to 1-2 instead of a natural-1 only (this will reset after a long rest and prayers). Beware, Erin!

Ilham the ghoul then gets another strike at Avel and rolls a [19+1] 20, doing 2 damage and taking half of her hit points. Stein the ghoul rolls a [18+1] 19 and finishes her off. Poor Avel Wayton… not so lucky after all.

The final person to go before I start the narrative is Umur. He charges into the gap made by Avel’s death and attempts to push Ilham away with his shield (Mighty Deed) while slashing with his sword. He rolls a [9+1+3 (hitting on the Deed!)] for a 13 with his longsword, doing 8 damage and almost killing the ghoul with one swipe. He missed with his [1+1+3] 5 with his shield bash, but the Mighty Deed goes off and he pushes Ilham away 10’ to make room for Haffoot.

That’s half of the first round, with Hilda and Haffoot still up.

It was a bloodcurdling scream from the back of the group that alerted them to something wrong. The halfling merchant, whose name was Avel, shrieked a second time, and immediately others from the back began yelling in alarm. Erin and Umur exchanged a quick nod, and the two began pushing through the Hirot villagers fleeing from the screams.

Erin outdistanced the dwarf and arrived first. Her eyes, limned by white moonlight, widened as she took in the two pale figures in dirty rags. They looked like humans, but gray and with sagging flesh over their bony limbs, assessing Avel with overlarge eyes. One crouched on the hard-packed dirt floor like a wild animal, sharp teeth gnashing. The other hung from the stone ceiling like a spider by clawed fingers that were too long to be human. Directly in front of the first creature, the halfling held her face with both hands and squealed while her fellow villagers scrambled away.

“Begone, creatures of Chaos!” Erin bellowed, one hand gripping the crescent moon hanging on a silver chain at her neck, the other hand on the hilt of the dagger at her waist. “By Shul’s light, begone!”

Snarling, the gray-skinned man-thing on the floor swiped up and grabbed a halfling leg. Almost simultaneously, its companion reached down and grabbed one of the merchant’s arms. Avel screamed even more hysterically as the creatures pulled her taut, muscles straining. With a howl from the creatures, her arm tore completely from her body. Gore and viscera sprayed the stone walls, splashing across Erin’s white, scaled armor and astonished face.

Umur bellowed as he arrived, shield in front like a battering ram. As he collided with the creature still gripping Avel’s leg, he slashed up with his longsword. The misshapen figure released the dying halfling and tumbled backwards in a heap, skidding on the floor and leaving a trail of thick, black blood. Umur snarled incoherently, spinning to raise his shield against the thing clinging to the ceiling, a small and bloody arm hanging from its grip.

Chanting filled the hallway, making everyone’s ears itch and causing them to wince. Hilda approached, hood thrown back and black rectangle upon her forehead glowing blue in the darkness.

Alright, time to see if our wizard can again do something cool. As a reminder, Hilda still has two more major bonuses to her spellcasting rolls from her original Patron Bond success. She’ll use one now and Invoke Patron.

Hilda will not yet use spellburn (I’m waiting for a particularly desperate situation where she does it out of instinct, and right now the bonuses from her Patron Bond are enormous), so her roll will be +1 for her level and have the +4 bonus from Patron Bond, for a total of +5 to her check. She rolls a [19 + 1 + 4] 24, which is the same effect as the first time she cast this spell. She’s going to start thinking that this magic stuff is easy!

The effect, as a reminder and in brief, is: Time ravages the area. It snows 1’, slowing movement. One target is struck by lightning, taking 1d6 (I roll 4) damage, but it rolls a DC 20 Fortitude save and rolls [19 + 1] 20, saving for half and taking 2 damage. That will still kill ‘ol Ilham, though the ghoul still has a surprise in store for the party.

As an aside, if Hilda survives to Level 2, these effects get even more bonkers.

For Joane Cayhurst and the three Graymoor companions, they witnessed Hilda’s miracle a second time. For the other five remaining Hirot villagers, they were awestruck by the sight of the Empty Star’s magic in action.

 As before, many events happened simultaneously and almost too quickly for minds to comprehend. Weeds and vines burst from the ceiling and floor. Cracks spidered through the heavy stone walls. Despite being indoors, snow filled the hallway, piling suddenly at their feet and upon their shoulders. And, above all, lightning flashed directly in front of Umur, blinding them all momentarily as it incinerated the gray-skinned creature that had rolled away from the dwarf’s shield blow.

When they blinked away the light from their eyes, the burned husk of the creature had collapsed like an empty bag. What had emerged from the husk was a large snake with a human-like head, eyes bulging and hinged mouth opening wide to reveal sharp, jagged teeth. It was as if the death of the first creature’s body had released this serpent that had been nesting within. The snake creature rose, hissing malevolently.

Despite the ghoul’s death, there are still two combatants when Haffoot joins the fray. She focuses on the closest one, Stein the ghoul, and attacks with both shortswords, missing with a [4+1] 5 on the first one and hitting with a [10+1] 11 on the second, inflicting 3 damage.

We’re now at the top of Round 2. Once the villagers clear away, Erin can step up and attempt to cast Paralysis on the creature Haffoot just wounded. She makes a +0 spell check and rolls a 16! She does [2+1] 3 damage with her dagger and the ghoul must make a Will save against her roll. It gets a 7 and is paralyzed. In addition, her dagger remains “charged” with the spell for [4+1] 5 rounds! So cool. Way to go, Erin!

Umur misses both attacks, so I’ll just leave him out of this round’s description. Similarly, the paralyzed ghoul will stay paralyzed and not act. It tries another save, which is another 7 and will keep it frozen.

The ghoul serpent, however, is not paralyzed. It rears up to strike Haffoot and rolls a [12+4] 16, hitting her AC of 11. Recall that Haffoot only has 6 hp, so the snake’s d6 of damage could kill her. Thankfully it rolls only 1 damage. She also must pass a DC 5 Fortitude save or Bad Things™ happen. She rolls a [6+1] 7. Whew.

Finally, will Hilda use the last +4 bonus to Invoke Patron again? Why yes, yes she will. Our wizard is drunk on power and does not realize that these beefy bonuses are about to end. She rolls a [11+1+4] 16, which is still a success and gets us a new result! Here is the text: “When the caster calls upon Ptah-Ungurath, the light turns sickly. Any water in the area takes on a nauseating green hue. A chill wind sweeps the area, and a sense of foreboding and monstrous guilt oppresses all creatures. So horrible and invasive is this guilt that all creatures within 100’ must make a DC 10 Will save or lose their next action to pangs of remorse and sorrow. Foes of the caster who fail the save take 1 (her level) damage as self-loathing rips at them. The caster can increase the damage by sacrificing Personality of allies to do so. The caster determines how much Personality is to be lost and all allies within range must pay the forfeiture.” WHOAH. Hilda’s patron is scary.

Conveniently, Erin, Haffoot, and Umur all pass while most of the villagers fail. The paralyzed ghoul Stein critically fails (nat-1) and the serpent passes. I’ll say Stein takes 2 damage for the fumble, leaving it with 2 hp. Hilda, not yet corrupted by her patron, will not drain her allies of Personality… this time.

Charging through the blizzard with swords out, Haffoot spun and slashed. Her normally clumsy gait disappeared in combat, it seemed, and the halfling fought with a graceful savagery that was made even more dizzying in the snowfall. With a leap, she drew a black, bloody line across the humanoid creature’s ribs and it fell, snarling, from the ceiling.

“I said begone!” Erin yelled, suddenly appearing out of the storm to loom over the fallen creature. She had drawn her long, crescent dagger and it glowed pale white like a shard of the moon itself. The cleric stabbed down, and the blade sunk into gray, sagging flesh. The creature arched its back with wide and terrified eyes, seemingly unable to move.

“It’s frozen!” Haffoot whooped. “Well done, Er– aarrgh!” The halfling had taken her eyes off the large, human-headed serpent that emerged from the burned corpse. It snapped with a shark-like mouth full of teeth at her. Haffoot reflexively brought the thin blade of her rapier up to parry, but the creature still tore into her shoulder.

A breeze suddenly filled the hallway that could only be described as evil. Cold, sickly air scattered the snowflakes still drifting aimlessly, and with it a wan blue light that seemed to emanate from everywhere. The remaining villagers collapsed, most crying or doubling over, as waves of shame and guilt washed over them with the wind. Only the Graymoor adventurers seemed immune to its ill effects, and there could be no doubt as to its origin. Staff held aloft, Hilda continued to chant, the doorway on her forehead pulsing with light.

“Go!” Hilda paused in her chanting to yell at the others. “While the creatures are distracted, finish them!”

Haffoot attacks the serpent with both swords. She would normally miss with a [9+1] 10, but she will use her Lucky Halfling ability to spend 2 Luck, giving her a +4 to the attack and thus hitting. Her second attack also hits with a [15+1] 16. Combined, she does [5+6, great rolls] 11 damage and kills it.

Erin attacks the paralyzed ghoul, which increases her action die to d24. She rolls a [19+1] 20, dealing minimum damage (2), which is still enough to kill it. That releases the second ghoul serpent, which is not paralyzed.

Umur will have an opportunity to attack with his longsword and shield before the serpent acts. For his Mighty Deed, he’ll try a rallying cry to the retainers, snapping them out of their misery. He rolls a nat-20, plus gets a 3 on the Deed (is that three in a row??)! For his crit, he rolls that the foe steps into his attack, dealing an additional d8 damage. As a result, the longsword does [7+3+8] (again, great rolls), obliterating the ghoul serpent before it can bite Erin with its necrotic bite. And, as a cherry on top, the retainers snap out of their Hilda-induced haze.

Combat done, with only 1 damage taken by the PCs, 2 Luck burned by our Halfling, and one spell failure by our Cleric. As with the Hound, that could have gone a lot worse without some of those high rolls. Thank you Foundry VTT dice roller! Even though both combats at Level 1 have been relative cakewalks, during them I definitely feel tense. Magic rolls could go badly, fumbles could happen, enemies could crit… I’m enjoying DCC and its swingy combat, and I know that I will be on the losing side of these rolls sooner than later.

Haffoot spun, thrusting with her rapier and slashing with her short, flat-bladed sword. The first pierced the body of the unnatural serpent, and its thrash of pain sent it directly into the second blade. Two pieces of the serpent fell to the snow at their feet, each writhing and spewing black blood.

Teeth clenched, Erin twisted her glowing dagger in the chest of the creature at her feet. Doing so created a hole from which burst a second human-headed serpent, its shark mouth open wide. Erin reared back but would have been too slow if not for a lateral slash from Umur’s longsword, the ancestral blade from Councilwoman Leda Astford of Graymoor. Dark liquid from the serpent joined red blood from the halfling across Erin’s white armor, and the second serpent died as soon as it had been born from its gray-skinned carcass.

“It’s done!” the dwarf bellowed. “These foul creatures are dead. Villagers of Hirot, gather round.”

There was something in Umur’s voice that rallied the group. Wiping tear-filled eyes and running noses, the words pulled them from the despair of Hilda’s ill wind. Shakily, they stood and staggered closer. The dwarf, Haffoot, and Erin stepped to meet them, shielding most from the view of the dead, dismembered halfling and gray-skinned corpses.

“Is, is that Avel?” Briene asked, sniffling and hiccupping from her despair. “Oh, no.”

“She didn’t even want to be here,” another woman, wearing patchwork armor and an overlarge iron cap, said from Briene’s side. “Was in the back because of it. Poor thing.”

“It’s done,” Umur repeated commandingly, drawing eyes to him. “From now on, one of us will travel in the rear as well as front.” His eyes scanned the gathered villagers. “Wait, why are there only six of ye?”

“Riffin stayed outside,” Briene offered. “To keep watch.”

“Fine then,” the dwarf nodded, frowning and inwardly berating himself for not realizing the absence sooner. “I can’t promise that was the last o’ the danger. Keep your eyes open, and don’t bloody touch anythin’.”

They readily agreed, and Umur said they would carry Avel’s body outside once they’d found the spear and were leaving the tomb. In the frightened, skittish minutes that everyone regrouped, breath steaming in the sudden cold, every villager from Hirot gave Hilda a wide berth, either looking away or with narrowed, untrusting eyes. Even Joane, who had been telling everyone of Hilda’s astounding feats of magic for the past day, seemed unsure how to make sense of the wind the wizard had summoned that robbed her of all hope. Hilda, for her part, said nothing. She returned her hood to cover the top half of her face and stood stoically leaning on her staff.

“Excuse me, Haffoot, is it?” Briene approached the halfling. With slender fingers she touched the torn, bloody sleeve delicately. “You’ve been hurt! I– I’m a healer. Not a cleric, mind you, but I provide aid to the clerics in our church. May I… take a look?”

“Ah, sure thing,” Haffoot grinned. “Much obliged.” She turned to offer the shoulder towards the striking young woman. Briene asked for someone to bring a torch so she could see, then rummaged around in her pack for bandages and salves.

Briene is indeed a Healer by occupation, and I’ve decided that she can heal 1hp with a DC 12 Intelligence check, if the injury is relatively mundane. Haffoot was bitten by a ghoul serpent but not infected by necrosis, so her wound counts as mundane.

She rolls a [15+1] 16, which hopefully helps Haffoot survive the tomb. Erin could have laid on hands (and would have tried if Briene had failed), but I wanted to give a retainer an opportunity to do something useful.

“It’s not a bad wound,” she said, lips pursed as she worked. “But already looks angry and red. I’ll clean it and give you a bandage. That pretty blouse will need some mending, though.”

“I’ll sew the blouse tonight,” Haffoot smiled, craning her neck to view the gash on her shoulder. “And appreciate the tendin’.”

By the time that Briene had washed the injury and applied a cloth to it, the others were ready to go. Half-melted snow littered the ground, and as it vanished it revealed the weeds that had thrust up from the hard-packed earth. It was all an unnerving reminder of Hilda’s power.

The halfling agreed to take up the rear and watch for more threats with her keen darkvision while Umur and Erin continued to lead the way. Hilda followed behind her two companions, and the five Hirot villagers held back from getting overly close to her. If Hilda noticed, the wizard of the Empty Star did not remark on their apprehension.

Erin and Umur led the group to the large chamber at the end of the hallway, ignoring the cramped, branching corridors except to be vigilant against additional threats. They neither heard nor saw movement. It seemed that, once again, they were alone within Ulfheonar’s tomb.

Three long steps descended from the hallway into the high-ceilinged chamber. Across from them stood a towering stone door twice the height of a human, flanked by ancient braziers of hammered bronze. Hundreds of carved, spiraling runes decorated the door, as well as the clear image of an enormous wolf being crushed by an even larger snake. The square room, which could fit their gathered group several times over, was bare except for thousands of what seemed to be thin, translucent strips of vellum covering the earthen floor.

“What’s that on the floor?” Umur frowned and squinted.

The acolyte of Shul, her white armor speckled red and black, descended the stone steps cautiously. When she reached the bottom step, Erin knelt and examined the objects on the floor with her luminous eyes. After several heartbeats, she reached out with a hand and snatched one, the sound like picking up a dry leaf in autumn.

“Snake skins,” she said simply, frowning and scanning the room. “Discarded snake skins.”

Carefully, she stepped onto the floor, dried skins crackling under her boot. Erin unsheathed her dagger, softly glowing eyes looking up and around. Grumbling, Umur followed her, his sword in one hand and shield in the other. The dwarf peered through his black, horned helm, ready to be attacked.

“Well, will you look at that?” Umur gasped, slightly lowering his guard as he approached the enormous door. “That’s dwarven make, that is.”

“Can it be opened?” Hilda asked, gingerly stepping onto the skin-riddled floor.

“Not by mortal hands,” Umur grunted. “That’s set into the ground, a seal more’n a door.”

“Is Ulfheonar’s tomb beyond?” the wizard asked. “Are we thwarted from reaching the spear? Perhaps my magic could…”

“No,” the dwarf cut her off. “Doesn’t smell right. That’s not his tomb.”

Some of the villagers have torches, and the module says that if the PCs light the braziers or have torches that I should make a secret Luck roll at DC 15 to see if they notice something. Who is the luckiest of the group? Haffoot gets a check automatically, and Briene Byley and Maly (the young woman with the oversized helmet) have Luck bonuses as well. Let’s have the three of them make rolls:

Haffoot rolls a [11+0] 11.

Maly rolls a [4+1] 5.

Briene rolls a [14+1] 15, exactly hitting the DC. She’s very much vying to be our next player character.

“Master Dwarf?” Briene Byley asked softly. The villagers had assembled on the bottom step at the chamber’s entrance, and only Joane and she had stepped forward onto the desiccated snake skins. Haffoot, taking her rearguard role seriously, stayed at the topmost step, back turned on the others as she watched the hallway.

“Mm?” Umur grunted. “What is it, lass?”

“It’s only,” the young healer said. “Look there, at the smoke from the torches. It’s being drawn up, above the stairs. What do you think that means?”

“What are you,” he began, and then squinted. Sure enough, smoke from the two torches the Hirot residents held seemed to be pulled up, to disappear into a horizontal gap near the ceiling he would not have noticed otherwise. “Step aside, let me see.”

The dwarf tromped over in his black-scaled mail, studying the wall below the gap, adjacent to the stairs.

“What is it?” Hilda asked. Villagers parted as she approached.

“By the gods,” he said, and when he looked up at the robed wizard, he was smiling. “She’s right. There’s a chamber above this one. See these holes here? And here? I’d bet my favorite hammer that was to anchor a ladder. Haffoot, lass, look at this.”

“Sure thing,” Haffoot sauntered over in her peculiar gait. “You, with the torch, hold it up and keep an eye behind us, yeah? What is it, Umur?”

“See that gap up there? Think you could climb it?”

The halfling crunched across dried skins, peering up beneath her tricorn hat. With a lopsided grin, she crossed her arms before her.

“Absolutely.”

Doom of the Savage Kings, Chapter 7