Silver Gull Campaign Update: A Litte "Julius Ceasar"

  I found my original hex map drawn for the region around town of Orhan that became the Imrani Waste as my "Silver Gull" Swords & Wizardry campaign advanced.  

It is stunning to me that this A5 page of notes managed to spur 21 sessions of my campaign (the first two were set in a dungeon hundreds of miles away.

Campaign Update

Some of my readers asked me to keep them posted about the events of the Silver Gull campaign, so I wanted to post a quick one here.

July 25th

On the eve of the Fall Equinox, the PCs flew to the mouth of the Oracle of inkandus, armed with clockwork horrors, alchemical mortars, and magic weapons. They instructed their succubus minion, Delgradia, to help them put the host at ease.

The host, once summoned with a sacrifice of prickly pear wine, led them through the upper floor of the Oracle to an ancient theatre. Finch took the stage and begane doing a comedic routine to amuse the demon that ended with the party's go-word for violence: "pineapples"

The moment they did that, the Succubus grabbed the demon and Reine drove a magic spear through his back that dealt a staggering 18hp of damage (the host had 38/41 hp remaining at that point.) With Zee's automatic crossbow (attack rate of 4/1, but prone to jamming and with expensive ammo). Thanks to a fortunate critical hit and strategic grappling the host went down in 3 rounds.

My 1st floor map for the 
Oracle of Inkandus
CC-BY Brian Rideout
Steal it if it's useful.

After that, as they scooped up rubies from an ancient offering bowl of the Cult of Malek, they discovered a dretch stage hand spying on them. they chased it into a prop room where it lured them to get in range of a pair of suits of animated armor, which severely wouned Finch before they took them down.

Heading for the 1st floor Frog Demonette Spawning pits, they met 11 demonettes heading their way. They managed to kill all but two with explosives while they had surprise. The other two were swiftly slaughtered by Zee and Finch.

Storming into th spawning pit, they found five remaining Demonettes fleeing with the eggs into a hidden tunnel underneath the acid of the pit. They shot and killed two of them, then created a massive slick of lamp oil on the pool with their Jug of Alchemy and lit it on fire. The three demonettes who escaped surfaced in a secret passage near the entrance, and, at the time we paused the game, were stealing the PCs' ornithopter.

August 1st

The PCs who had plague doctor's masks, Finch and Zee, chose to search the blazing spawning pool room where they found in the far corner a painted skeleton turned into a marionette - still wearing armor and jewelry that marked him as a lost citizen of Orhan. The PCs cut him down, wrapped him in canvas, and stuffed him into a bag of holding to give him a proper burial (the second skeleton put in the bag for that purpose.)

As they tore open the crate to find money, expiered stone-tongue cure, and rotted furs, Reine detected something lurking in the hall. Sneaking out and relying on her infravision, she spotted more Frog Demonettes setting up firing lines and bear traps in the hall ahead. She signalled the others, and Zee lanuched their last bomb at the knot before they could fire, killing them all.

(Bombs are extremely expensive alchemical weapons that work like fireball: 5d6 damage in a 10ft. radius, save for half.)

Disarming the traps by throwing bits of frog demon into them, the PCs moved on to a chamber filled with squorm tanks - foul cephalopods used by many other monsters as food. Peering in, Reine had her face grabbed and a fiendish squorm attempted to drain her blood. Finch cut it off of her, and they backed away.

Rather than risk being jumped by more squorms they worked as a team, pouring bitumen from the Jug of Alchemy onto the surface of the tanks, lighting it, and draining the tanks from spigots at the bottom in order to boil the squorms in oil before heading down a set of stairs.

Below they entered a room with a pool of sludge from the drains above. Taking the left-hand door, they surprised a nest of Frog Demonettes down a short hall. A barrage of musket fire and crossbow bolts failed to down more than one demon... but let the werewolves in the kitchen know that they were coming.

Finch was set upon by Frog Demonettes as he barred the door, taking numerous claw attacks as Zee swatted barbed darts out of the air. In a desperation move, Finch pushed the frog demonettes back and threw a bottle of gorgon breath at them, turing all but one to stone, allowing Reine to shoot the other and kill it.

The Frog Demonette nest included crystal daggers, a ruby the size of a PC's palm, an ancient sage's head preserved in a bottle, and a sack of gold. As they were gathering their spoils, Reine heard the two werewolves sneaking up, still in human form.

They decided to parlay with the lycanthropes, who appeared as demented cooks in amber amulets and smocks of human skin. The Werewolves were cagey however. Eventually, Delgradia got imaptient charmed one of them and forced him to give them intelligence: they cooked for the frog demonettes and the Librarian below... an ogre magus with a fondness for human flesh.

Satisfied with thir answers, the succubus turned the werewolves away so that the PCs could shoot them in the back, Reine killed one before it could transform with a miraculous critical hit from behind. the other transformed and attacked the succubus first.

Hoping to take advantage of Reine's backstab, the succubus grappled, Zee stabbed the Werewolf in the face with a magic dagger, and Finch kicked it in the groin and taunted it... which led to the inevitable "wolfman's got nards!"  Monster Squad line.

Reine did indeed get a backstab that finished the wolfman off,

The PCs discussed what they learned and decided that they wanted to kill the Librarian by poisoning him. the Succubus offered to help in return for freedom to do as she pleased so long as she did not harm the PCs. They agreed, (Declaring that as she was more of a home wrecker demon than a flesh-eating demon, anyone who let a succubus "wreck their home" probably earned their misery.) She transformed herself into the cook and hid the body.

They backtracked the werewolves to the kitchen, where Delgradia began cooking the other werewolf to create a posioned human stwe. The PCs variously raided the kitchen for cutlery and glassware, repaired a cart to move coins, and otherwise tried hard not to watch the unfolding horror.

Things got dicey when I rolled a wandering monster and determined that the medusa concubine of the ogre mage wandered into the kitchen demanding his supper. (The hour was right and the dice were cruel.) Because she entered blindfolded to protect the cooks the party was able to remain silent, and thus unnoticed. (Finch wears no armor, making this plausible.)

The succubus lied about the smell of humans by claiming she had "fresh catches" while claiming that she wished to have more "pineapple" for the stew.

Reine chugged a potion of stone giant strength and sneak-attacked the Medusa for such a staggering amoint of damage we all paused to applaud her player. The Succubus changed form and outfits to imitate the medusa, putting the original one's head in an iron pot.

They then took the poisoned stew the way the medusa had come, encountering a Karshtachaa... a powerful frog demon guarding a treasury of stolen holy relics. The succubus distracted him long enough for Reine to repeat her "super thief" backstab, followed by Finch attacking with his own potion of giant strength- charged strike.

Moving onward they headed to the bottom floor of the dungeon where they triggered off a magic mouth with dire warning before we were forced to stop for the evening.