Rescue the Princess: part 2

This episode of my solo dungeon crawl was conducted while at one of my daughter's many activities that I have to drive her to. This time it was art class. The teacher lives way out in a "hollar" or valley. She has no wifi connection or even good cell phone connection, so it was up to what I had on my laptop and cell phone to game.  I almost exclusively used Labyrinth Lord for this game as well as the No Budget No Frills Pencil and Paper Dungeon Generator.  I have a dic rolling app and a card deck app on my phone to assist me.

Pictures were added last minute to greatly enhance the story.

After finding nothing in the room [see the previous game (3)], the party goes back to the intersection where they fought the crab spider (2). When they arrive, they find that the carcass is no longer there! It appeares that it was dragged down the hall going north. After a consult, the party decides to first explore the hall to the east.

See bracketed numbers in text for explanation. North is up.

As they travel down the corridor, they encounter a small body lying in the floor (4). It turns out to be a hobbit.

The wounded hobbit

His clothes are torn, and has had multiple wounds on his body. The more recent wounds consist of puncture holes on his upper arms and neck. In his hand is a dagger with a bloodied blade. It looked like he dragged himself to this location from down the hall. Sister Yabringa finds him to be alive but barely. She casts a cure light wounds and after a few minutes, he is conscious. Cuthwaith mutters to himself, as he didn't get a chance to clean the Hobbit’s pockets out. The groggy hobbit states that he was kidnapped many days ago; by whom, he doesn’t know, and dragged into the tomb. He managed to escape, but was attacked by various creatures while trying to get out of here. They party asks if he wishes to join them, but he quickly declines. He wants to be out of there as soon as possible! Youngrin and Gladwell escort him back to the entrance. They give him some rations and water and tell show him the direction back to the village. Despite his wounds, the hobbit quickly heads off down the path.

 While Youngrin and Gladwell were escorting the hobbit the rest of the party travelled further down the hall. On the floor is a trail of blood splatters leading to where the hall ends at a door (5). They waited for the two fighters to return and then turned their attention to the door. Cuthwaith checks and finds no traps and the door is slightly ajar.  He also hears nothing. They party surmises that the hobbit must have come out of there. They decide that the fighters will go first, followed by Kassira and the thief, and finally the magic users, Bral, and the cleric. Readying his battle axe, Elgrum takes the lead and opens the door.  Inside, 4 stirges are present hanging from the ceiling like bats!

A-h-h-h! Very scarey!

They party manages to get the jump on them just as they were beginning to take off from their roost. Elgrum and Gladwell both miss, but Youngrin manages to hit and cut one down. The remaining party pours through the door. For whatever reason, the stirges fly towards the rest of the party, perhaps to exit the door. Kassira, the thief and Charnel are attacked! They miss the thief and Charnel but hit Kassira. It pierces Kassira in the chest and it is stuck there sucking her blood! Kassira grabs the stirge and attempts to pull it out of her but doesn’t succeed. Sister Yabringa yells,“hold still!” and attempts to smack the stirge with her club. She misses, but fortunately she also misses Kassira. Meanwhile, Charnel casts magic missiles at her opponent but the stirge dodges the missiles! The thief kills his opponent. Gladwell and Elgrum manage to turn around and attack the remaining stirges. Gladwell hits one but it still lives. The stirge locked on Kassira still sucks her blood (down more hits). The other attacks Charnel again but fails miserably due to being hit by Gladwell. Again, Yabringa misses the beast on Kassira, but Kassira manages to jab her dagger into it to try to pry it out of her, giving it 5 hits but not enough to kill or remove it. Both the thief and Charnel attack Charnel’s stirge and together they finish it off. All is left is the one stuck in Kassira that inflicts another 3 hits of damage to her. Kassira is starting to look faint. Just then, Elgrum grabs the thing and yanks it out of her, crushing it at the same time! Blood splatters everywhere! Yabringa immediately presses on Kassira’s wound to stop the blood flow but Kassira looses another 2 points of damage and passes out. Yabringa immediately casts a cure wound spell, which saves her, but just barely.

 “Burn you and your male stupidity, Elgrum!” Yabringa spat, “she could have died because of that!”

Elgrum snarls something in reply and tosses the stirge carcass off to one side.

Cuthwaith picking the lock on the secret door

They check the room. It is a long room only 30' wide but extends 60' in length. The wall at the far end shows an old, faded, crudely-painted mural of a pastoral scene of mountains and forests. In the foreground are images of humans dancing and playing musical instruments. Along with the humans are snake-like creatures. Yabringa, Elgrum, and Youngrin each mutter a prayer of protection as they look at it. In addition to the stirges that they killed, there are the two more recently-killed carcasses on the floor. Inspecting the mural further, Cuthwaith finds a secret door. It is locked but can’t tell if it is trapped. Three darts shoot out as he picks the lock but he manages to dodge them. Inside reveals closet with a bag containing 250 gp and a well-made, heavy crossbow with a leather and wood case that has a leather strap. Within the case are 10 bolts. With each bolt, are two tips that can be screwed into the bolt. One is of iron and the other silver. Charnel casts a, detect magic spell on the weapon, but finds nothing out of the ordinary. Youngrin states that they are in no condition to go further and should rest up here for the night.  The idea of staying in the funky-smelling tomb does not sound appealing, but Charnel nods to Miria who pulls out from a small bag of marble-sized light blue spheres. She gently crushes one in her hands as she sings a soft incantation and the air immediately smells cleaner and fresher. The party feels a sense of calm because of it. Yabringa heals Kassira once more and she is fully restored. They rest for the night. During the night, nothing occurs.

The game wrapped up in a little over an hour. More modifications need to be done on the No Budget No Frills Pencil and Paper Dungeon Generator. For example, the corridor encounter table is a little monster encounter heavy. I converted two monster encounters into events. One was the crab spider carcass being gone, and the other was the discovery of the wounded hobbit. Also, the dungeon encounters table in Labyrinth Lord is a little on the harsh side for a first level dungeon. There were many re-rolls to avoid certain death for the party.